


awkward to the Nth degree

by hey_you_with_the_face



Series: awkward [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Anal Sex, Awkward Matchmaking, Baker Castiel, Blow Jobs, Boys Kissing, Coitus Interruptus, College Student Dean, Dirty Talk, Embarrassment, Food sex mishap, Frottage, M/M, Making Out, Matchmaker John, Meddling John, Motorcyle riding Cas, Outdoor Sex, Poor Dean, Sex Toys, Shower Sex, Skype Sex, Slight Voyeurism, mortification
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-14
Updated: 2017-02-25
Packaged: 2018-06-08 09:12:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 25
Words: 76,951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6848452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hey_you_with_the_face/pseuds/hey_you_with_the_face
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are times when Dean would sell his soul for a hole to open up and swallow him so he could escape an embarrassing situation and this time he was tempted to add his precious Impala to the deal, anything to escape mortifying himself in front of this blue-eyed, bed-headed dream.</p>
<p>A story where Dean attempts to navigate horribly awkward incidences and fails but there just might be an upside to his failures...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

When Dean had daydreamed about finally coming home for the summer from college, his fantasies included the basics: getting to eat his mom’s amazing home cooking, not having to go to do homework or study and, since he wasn’t going to classes, sleeping in for once as well as a dozen other activities. Having been home for a couple of weeks, he had successfully enjoyed the almost all of the things on his list except one, sleeping in, which is why Dean was currently trying to block out the incessant pounding on his bedroom door with his pillow.

_Slam, Slam, Slam!_

“Dammit Dean, it’s time to get up. I swear I’ll go to work without you if you don’t move your ass!” his dad said, voice muffled by the door. Dean knew that he was serious, John Winchester was not a patient man, so he rolled over and rubbed his eyes tiredly.

“I’m up, I’m up,” Dean groaned as he rolled slowly out of bed, scrubbing at his face with one hand and searching the floor for a pair of marginally clean jeans with the other. “Give me ten minutes.”

His dad seemed appeased by this and Dean heard the dull thud of his dad’s boots echoing down the hallway. Dean heaved an exhausted sigh and pulled on his jeans and a ratty t-shirt before grabbing some socks and his boots. Not bothering to put his shoes on just yet, he left his room and ambled downstairs; he was decidedly not happy. 

When he had told his parents that he was going to be coming home for the summer instead of trying to stay on campus like some of the other people he knew, it was just too expensive in his opinion, his mother Mary had immediately started saying how nice it would be for the family to be together for the summer while his dad had said that he could come and help out at the garage. He said it would be good for Dean to stay busy over the summer and it would get him some extra money. Dean had been under the impression he would only be helping out when the garage got slammed with customers so he agreed without a fuss. Unfortunately for Dean, his assumptions were wrong; John had apparently told his friend Bobby that Dean wanted to work full time at the garage, all summer long.

It’s not that Dean really minded the work, he loved working on cars. Figuring out the mechanics of what made something tick came easy to him, that’s why he decided to go to college to be an engineer. No, what drove him crazy was the idea that even though he was home from college and didn’t have any classes to go to, he was getting up even earlier than he had at school and he was definitely not a morning person.

Once he made it to the kitchen, Dean quickly tossed a bagel in the toaster and pulled on his boots while he waited for it to pop back up; his dad was pouring coffee into a travel mug, he made a mental note to make himself a mug since he could barely keep his eyes open. Once Dean had his bagel and coffee ready, they both headed out to his dad’s truck. It hurt Dean to leave his beloved Impala sitting in the driveway but, as his mom pointed out, it made more sense to carpool to the garage and even Dean had to grudgingly admit, his baby was a gas guzzler.

The cab of the truck was silent as John drove them to work, the only noise being the occasional slurp of someone drinking from their coffee mug and the sound of Dean eating his breakfast. 

“So, uh, been home from school for a while now, you missing anybody yet?” John asked stiltedly out of nowhere. Dean turned to look at him with a confused look, his mouth full of bagel, and wondered where the hell this was going. “You know, your friends,” his dad continued stiffly before adding quickly, “Maybe a boyfriend?”

Ah, it was going to be that kind of day wasn’t it?

Dean swallowed his food and resisted the urge to sigh heavily while rolling his eyes; his dad was trying and that was all that he could ask for. 

He had come out to his family when he came home during winter break this year and it had been a bit of a shock for everyone; Dean had suspected he might be gay since high school but kept up the pretense of being straight, afraid of disappointing his parents but after experiencing the freedom that going away to college brings, he decided to man up and tell them. Once the initial shock had worn off his mom and brother Sam had quickly adjusted and were comfortable but things were a bit different with his dad. 

John wasn’t homophobic by any means but Dean suspected that his dad just didn’t know exactly how to take the news. It was as if he were trying too hard to be show he was okay with it and still loved him but it made things awkward sometimes, such as right now.

“Um, no Dad,” Dean said in what he hoped was a nonchalant tone, “I’ve been keeping in touch with my friends and I don’t have a boyfriend right now." He could feel himself flushing in embarrassment and could see a bit of red coloring his dad's face, they both probably looked like a pair of tomatoes.

"Oh, well, I'm sure you'll find, ah, a nice guy, us Winchester men are notorious for being good catches you know," his dad replied in tone that was still slightly awkward but slowly grew more comfortable. 

Dean chuckled, “Yeah dad, I guess I just haven’t found the right guy. I’ll just have to keep eyes peeled. You let me know if you see one.”

They both laughed at this and as a result the air in the truck seemed to get less tense and strange as they chatted about what was on the schedule at the garage for the day. Soon they were pulling into work and their morning got back on track.

Luckily Dean was able to avoid any more embarrassing moments involving his dad asking about boyfriends for the rest of the day; the shop was busy enough that no one really had time for idle chit-chat which suited Dean just fine. At four o'clock, they trooped back to the truck to go home and the rest of Dean's evening went on as normal so he just chalked the weird drive to work up to a one time thing.

 

Once again, as was the way of the universe, Dean soon found out he was very wrong.

The two weeks following what Dean referred to as ‘The Boyfriend Talk’ was enough time for him to deeply regret his offhanded comment to his dad about letting him know if he saw any potential guys. 

_“You know Dean, that Adam who works down at the library is a pretty decent kid. Have you ever talked to him?”_

_“Oh, I was at the hardware store the other day and Rufus told me there’s a guy who drops off his shop flyers that he thinks you might like.”_

_“Your mom told me that Mrs. Johnson’s son is home from college too. I’m pretty sure that he’s into guys, maybe you should give him a call and see where it goes? I bet your mom could get his number for you.”_

Dean was currently digging through the snack cabinet, keeping one eye fixed on the doorway to the living room just in case he had to make a quick getaway. He couldn’t risk being cornered by his dad again; there was just not enough patience left in him to withstand another weird attempt by his dad to get him to agree to a set up with whatever guy he’d dug up this time. It was as he was reaching up to grab some chips that a creaking sound echoed through the kitchen, causing him to spin around while clutching a bag of pretzels to his chest defensively; his mind was already desperately formulating an escape plan when he saw it was just his mom. 

“Don’t worry, you’re safe,” she said with a small smile. “Dad went out with Bobby to the Roadhouse tonight so you can rest easy knowing there will be no attempts to find you a boyfriend.”

Sighing in relief, Dean set down the pretzels and went back to liberating the chips from the top shelf while his mom started washing up the dishes; normally Sam would do them but he was out on a date with his girlfriend Jess tonight. Dean sat at the table with his snack and ate silently for awhile, enjoying the quiet and his mom’s comforting presence but soon he found himself breaking the quiet, needing to get something off his chest that had been bugging him for the last two weeks

“Why has he been acting like this Mom?,” Dean asked, getting up to help her dry the dishes. “I just don’t get why he’s made it his personal mission to get me hooked up with someone. Does he think I need help because I’m gay or something?”

Mary laughed quietly as she scrubbed at a plate. “He just wants to help you find someone honey. I can promise you that if you were straight, he’d be doing this exact thing except with every available girl he could find.”

“But why? I mean, yeah I joked about him keeping an eye out for guys a while ago but it was a joke,” he replied exasperatedly. Pretty much every day since this disaster started, Dean had wished fervently that he hadn’t made that joke. He loved his dad to death but the man was slowly driving him insane. “I’m perfectly capable of finding a guy on my own; I don’t get why he feels the need to get involved.”

They had finished the dishes and moved to sit at the kitchen table, munching on chips periodically. There was a moment of silence while his mother seemed to consider her answer.

“I think he just wants to know that you have someone in your life is all,” she finally said, smiling at him gently. “He has it in his head that part of his job of being a parent is making sure you aren’t lonely and his best plan is setting you up with any eligible bachelor in the tri-county area. I know it’s embarrassing but he’s only doing it because he cares.”

Despite his frustration at the situation, Dean had to laugh at this; it did seem like his dad was scouring the area for any gay guys around his age. Maybe it wasn’t as bad as he liked to make it out to be, after all, it was proof that his dad accepted him as he was and was trying in his odd way to support him.

“Alright, it’s just Dad trying to show he cares,” Dean admitted grudgingly, “But I don’t want to be set up, I’m fine as is.”

“My suggestion would be to just humor him once or twice, talk to a few of his candidates and tell him they weren’t your type,” Mary suggested as she patted him soothingly on the back and giving him a quick kiss on the head. “That will make him happy and he’ll more than likely back off for a bit.” With that said she told him goodnight and left the room, leaving Dean alone with the half eaten bag of chips and his thoughts.

Dean considered his mom’s suggestion for a minute, contemplating the pros and cons. It probably was his only way to avoid an entire summer of ‘Dean Winchester: The Dating Game’, a situation that caused him to shudder internally; no, he definitely could not stand that. His mom was right, the only way to defuse this situation without hurting his dad’s feelings would be to just go with it for a guy or two and then say it didn’t work out. That would be pretty easy and then he could coast through the rest of the summer without the constant matchmaking attempts. Having come to a decision, Dean cleaned up the kitchen table and went up to his room for the night.

 

The opportunity to enact his new go with the flow plan didn’t present itself until a week later. 

They were sitting at the kitchen table on a Thursday night when John mentioned that they had a barbecue to go this coming weekend. Bobby occasionally liked to have the employees at the garage and their families over for a cookout to thank them for their hard work, especially after a particularly busy couple of weeks at the shop, and he’d decided to have one this Saturday. 

Dean was already aware of this since he worked with his dad so he wasn’t really paying attention until he heard his dad mention something about someone being a ‘good kid’ which had his head snapping up immediately. The phrase ‘good kid’ was a favorite of his dad’s to describe one of his newest candidates for the position of Dean’s boyfriend. Mentally preparing himself for what he was about to do and remembering his mom’s plan, Dean asked his dad to repeat himself.

“I was just saying that Chuck, you know him Dean, the guy who does the books for the shop, said his boy is coming the to cookout. From what his dad says, he’s a nice kid and I thought maybe you might want to meet him,” his dad said in between bites of his dinner. “Apparently he’s running his own bakery in town and Chuck thinks you two would really hit it off.”

His mom gave him a pointed look over her water glass and, sighing internally, Dean made his move.

“Yeah Dad,” Dean said as naturally he could, “He sounds nice, maybe I will talk to him and see where it goes.” 

His dad was obviously not expecting this to happen, considering Dean had yet to show even the tiniest bit of interest in his attempts to match-make, and looked a bit dumbstruck for a minute before recovering himself. “Oh, well, good,” he said in surprise, “I’ll make sure to point him out to you tomorrow then.” 

“Great,” Dean said a tone of forced enthusiasm, “Can’t wait to meet him.”

Well, that was it; he’d committed to the plan, hopefully it would work like his mom had guessed it would. Now all he had to do was meet this guy, act like there was a possibility he was interested and then say he wasn’t actually looking at the moment and he’d be home free for the summer. Besides maybe this poor guy was in the same situation with his dad, and they could both get out of this mess without things getting too awkward.


	2. Chapter 2

There were times that Castiel Novak wished he had decided to go to college. The benefit of having a legitimate reason for being away from home for extended periods of time seemed very very alluring at the moment.

“Oh, don’t be like that Castiel,” Rachel Novak chided as she cleared up the remains of the weekly family dinner from the table. “It’ll be fun, there will be people your age there, maybe you’ll make some more friends since all you do is work anymore.”

Castiel sighed and stood up to help his mother, picking up a mostly empty bowl of mashed potatoes. “I have friends Mother and I have to work all the time because that’s what happens when you run your own business.” 

This was a consistent argument between his mother and him. She believed that he was wasting his youth by starting his own bakery, since it took up a lot of his time, and encouraged him to ‘get out more.’ Castiel’s argument was that he met plenty of people every day when they came in to buy things at the shop and that he did indeed have friends, granted they were few in number but he was a firm believer in the idea that you should have great quality friends instead of friends in great quantity. 

“Well I still think it would be nice for the family to go to an event together, especially since Gabriel is in town for once,” his mother replied, fixing him with a look that was probably supposed to make Castiel feel guilty and, to his annoyance, it actually somewhat did.

He did have to concede the Gabriel issue to her, it was very rare that his older brother Gabriel stayed in one place for very long, let alone came home for an extended period of time. He was actually working at Castiel’s shop as a barista at the moment which was working out quite well, his brother had always been a good talker and was therefore very good a sales; Castiel had sold more baked goods in the past couple of weeks than he had at any point since he’d started his bakery now that Gabriel was behind the counter.

“It’s not an event, it’s a backyard barbecue,” Castiel argued as he put dishes in the dishwasher. “I doubt anyone would even miss me. I can’t close the shop just so I can go to a cookout.”

This was a very valid point which he was more than willing to exploit than the actual reason he didn’t want to attend the barbecue. What Castiel was truly trying to avoid by getting out of going to the cookout was the inevitable awkwardness of being hit on by the daughters of his father’s coworkers and the any other number of single women at the party. He wasn’t a dimwit; he knew that he was attractive and that did come with a territory but the problem was that he didn’t play for that team, which made matters a bit strained when you had to turn down insistent women. Hopefully pulling the small business owner card could help him escape.

“You’re only open half days on Saturdays anyway Castiel,” his mother shot back as she tidied the kitchen. Castiel closed the dishwasher and went to sit at the table. “You’d only have to close an hour early at the most or you could have Hannah finish out the day, she’s a capable worker.”

Castiel rubbed at the bridge of his nose in frustration, his mother had him boxed in; he was going to have to go to the damn party and stand around while girls tried to get into his personal space, and his pants, then have his friend Meg tease him when she found out about it from his brother…

Suddenly an idea occurred to him, a way to make his mother happy while avoiding the dreaded advances of random single women.

“Fine Mother, I’ll close the shop early tomorrow and come to the barbecue but I have one condition, I’m bringing Meg with me,” Castiel said. He already had his phone out, texting Meg to meet him at this apartment tonight to hang out; he’d have to do some major grovelling to make this work.

“I don’t see why you couldn’t. I did want this to be a family thing but Meg practically is anyway and if it gets you to stop complaining fine, bring her with,” his mother replied, seeming happy to have gotten her own way if not a little frustrated that she’d had to make a bargain. With the great argument settled, Castiel told his mother he had made plans to meet with some friends tonight so he’d best be on his way. She kissed him on the cheek and told him to be safe driving home. Castiel gathered his jacket and, once he’d popped his head into his father’s home office to say goodbye, he was on his way home.

 

Twenty minutes later, Castiel was letting himself into his little apartment above the shop. Most people thought he had either started renting the shop and then the apartment when it came available or started renting them together but were surprised to find it was just luck that soon after he’d moved into the apartment, the owner of the coffee shop below him had wanted to retire; it was like the universe had been telling him that his dream of starting a bakery wasn’t actually a bad idea.

He hung up his jacket, kicked off his boots and went to take a shower; Meg had texted to let him know she’d be over at nine. It was a little after seven now so he had time to relax before she arrived. Passing the living room, he switched on the TV to break the silence in the apartment; living alone wasn’t so bad most of the time, running the shop kept him busy so he didn’t notice it all that much, but he did have to admit that it would be nice to have someone else around to keep it from being too quiet.

After a quick shower, Castiel went to the kitchen and took stock of the ingredients in his cabinets. He knew that, in addition to grovelling, one sure fire way to get Meg to go along with his scheme was bribery which meant he had to use the time he had left before she came by to whip up a batch of chocolate-peanut butter no bake cookies; they were her favorite and, luckily for him, she couldn’t make them to save her life so they were the perfect offering.

It wasn’t until he was peeling the freshly set cookies off the wax paper that Castiel heard the sound of his front door opening; he never bothered locking the door when Meg was coming over, it was pointless since she had a key and had no problem with just walking in.

“Well Clarence, I’m here,” Meg’s voice echoed down the hall as she made her way to the kitchen, “What’s with the surprise hang out session? You’re usually not this spontaneous.”

His friend immediately hopped up to sit on the counter space next to where he was working, despite his usual protests about it not being sanitary, and grabbed the last two cookies from the sheet. Meg bit into the first cookie and looked at him expectantly.

_Time to bite the bullet_ , he thought to himself tiredly. Castiel knew that the next few minutes were going to be torture for his ego and self-esteem. Meg was not going to make this whole ordeal easy on him.

“I wanted to ask for a favor,” Castiel answered, decidedly not looking at his friend while he finished packing the cookies into containers because obviously if he avoided eye contact this wouldn’t be embarrassing. “You see, my mother guilted me into going to a cookout my father’s boss is throwing tomorrow and I was really hoping you would go with me.”

He looked at Meg to see what her reaction to this statement was; she was looking back at him, a cookie in her mouth and her brows knitted together with confusion. “Why do you need me to go to a cookout? Worried about interacting with real humans?” she said dryly. Meg was also of the opinion that Castiel didn’t get enough socialization.

“I was kind of hoping you would sort of just be around in order to deter the single women at the party. Hopefully they’ll assume you’re my girlfriend and leave me alone,” he said quickly and quietly, hoping that he’d gained enough good karma lately and that it would cause Meg to just accept his answer and move on.

Meg’s cackling laughter answered that question.

“Aww, big bad Cas needs me to help fend off the all the scary girls at a party,” Meg chuckled, patting him patronizingly on the head much to his annoyance, “I know you don’t bat for that team but I never took you as being afraid of vaginas.” She wrapped an arm around his shoulder and pulled him in for a quick hug before ruffling his already messy hair, much to his chagrin.

Castiel ran a hand through his hair, trying to put it back in place and failing miserably before scowling at her. “Ha, ha,” he said dryly, “I am not afraid of women Meg, I just hate having to endure being flirted at just so I can look like an asshole when I turn them down. There will probably be some single girls there since the other garage employee’s families are supposed to be there and I thought that if you tagged along, they would leave me alone.” 

“So you invited me over to beg me to be a human shield between you and the horny girls who might want to get into your pants,” Meg said, barely able to conceal her glee at his resigned embarrassment, “I bet you made these cookies as a bribe, didn’t you?”

Grudgingly, Castiel nodded. “They are all yours if you agree to go with me. Please Meg,” he pleaded, “I can’t get out of this one and I know I can’t stand going to another party where I get hit on the entire time, it’s just too damn uncomfortable.”

“Hmmm,” Meg hummed as she tapped her chin thoughtfully, purposefully dragging out her answer to mess with him. Castiel huffed in frustration but waited patiently, not wanting to annoy her and risk his friend saying no. “Alright, I’ll do it but it’s for the sake of the cookies Clarence.”

Castiel whooped and punched a fist in the air in victory; he was saved, thank god for friends who were easily swayed by baked goods. It was good to be a baker sometimes.

After he filled her in on the details of the party, they spent the rest of the night browsing Netflix on his TV until Meg decided she had better head home, joking that she needed her beauty sleep so that no girls tried to steal her man tomorrow. Castiel thanked her again, promising her another batch of cookies next weekend if everything went well tomorrow, before accompanying his friend to the door. Once Meg was gone, he locked the door and tidied up the living room so he could go to bed. He slept peacefully knowing that he had nothing to worry about tomorrow and that, with Meg’s help, he just might survive this party with his dignity intact.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I too am a fan of no bake cookies even if they can be tricky little buggers if you don't boil the chocolate part _exactly_ right :)


	3. Chapter 3

A slight feeling of dread prickled at the back of Dean’s mind when he woke up, all by himself at the somewhat decent hour of nine for once, Saturday morning and it took him a moment to figure out why he felt that way. Then the reason popped into his head like some sort of evil gremlin.

Dammit, he’d agreed to meet one of his dad’s many potential suitors at Bobby’s party today. Voluntarily agreed too.

When he remembered this little detail, he groaned and flopped his pillow over his face. The idea had made so much sense when his mom had suggested it and seemed easy enough the other night when he agreed but now that he actually had to go through with it, Dean really really didn’t like it.

Dean dragged himself out of bed and gathered his towel before heading to the shower, hoping maybe feeling clean would help brighten his mood a bit. The hot water of the shower did make him more alert but that had the unfortunate side effect of causing him to think about how this afternoon might turn out. In his mind, things would not go well for him because there was one thing he hadn’t told his mom that might make this plan more painful and humiliating than he originally thought.

Despite his ability to charm women, a skill honed by his years of playing it straight, Dean was horribly bad at flirting or talking to men who might be interested in him.

He didn’t know what the problem was, in his mind he figured he should be able to do it; Dean happened to believe he was a charming bastard but that skill set didn’t seem to matter when he talked to guys. He could talk to guys when it was obvious that there was nothing involved besides maybe friendship, he had no problem there, but if a dude showed interest in more, it was as if his brain checked out and he would either get tongue-tied or say the stupidest things possible.

Finishing up in the shower, Dean went back to his room to get dressed. He tossed his towel and pajamas in the hamper and got dressed; he decided to go with a pair of faded jeans that may or may not make his ass look pretty good and a plain grey t-shirt. Dean wasn’t exactly sure why he was making an effort to look nice considering he wasn’t truly interested in Chuck’s son but that didn’t stop him from staring into the mirror over his dresser, pensively running a hand over the stubble on his face while trying to decide if he should shave.

“Jeez Dean, how long are you going to primp for your date?” Sam’s amused voice said behind him. “At this rate we’ll be late to the party.” 

Dean jumped at the unexpected noise but quickly recovered and turned to glare at his brother, his face was in no way slightly pink in embarrassment. His brother was leaning against the now open bedroom door with his arms crossed and a smug grin on his face.

“I’m not ‘primping’ Sammy, I just got a shower is all,” Dean grumbled, “Just because you need to spend hours in front of the mirror tending to your flowing locks for Jess doesn’t mean the rest of us do.” Dean was happy to see Sam scowl at this statement; served the little punk right for barging into his room. Sam moved away from the doorway and flopped onto Dean’s bed. “You’re just picking on me because you’re nervous about meeting your mysterious potential boyfriend.”

Dean pointedly moved away from his mirror and began to nervously pick up the clothes strewn around the floor of the room, tossing them in the hamper; he wasn’t sure how to respond to that. Part of him wanted to just admit the plan to Sam but a louder part argued it would be best to keep the circle of people who knew about his grand plan small plus knowing how conversations usually went with his little brother, Dean would end up blabbing his embarrassing ‘Dean-couldn’t-flirt-his-way-out-of-bag-in-regards-to-men’ secret; that just couldn’t happen. He decided that keeping up the charade would be best.

“You’re right smartass, I guess I am a bit nervous,” Dean admitted, going for a reluctant tone to really sell it, “I don’t have a lot of practice doing this sort of thing, I mean I’ve only really been talking to dudes like...that..for about a year and a half. It makes it harder when you hardly know the guy.”

The room was silent as Sam seemed to digest this information, Dean could hear his parents moving around downstairs and the sound of someone mowing their lawn out the open window. Sam rolled onto his side so he was looking up at him. “Well, then I guess my advice to you would be to relax,” Sam said, an earnest look on his face, “It sounds like you’re over thinking the whole talking to dudes thing, have you just tried being laid back about it? They’re still just people after all even if you might be interested in more, you know how to talk to people just fine, I’ve seen you do it.”

Oddly enough this advice caused Dean to pause for a minute. He did seem to put a lot more mental effort into talking to guys now that he’d embraced his sexuality and now that he thought about it, when he’d been flirting with women, he used to just sort of go with the flow. Maybe Sam was right, maybe he was overthinking everything.

This revelation didn’t help the current situation though, Dean still didn’t want to have to deal with a set up courtesy of his dad; it seemed undignified and pathetic in someway, having his dad of all people picking out dates for him. 

_This doesn’t have to be a total loss_ , his mind supplied, _Think of this afternoon as a test run of this new ‘less thinking, more flirting’ philosophy. If it works, you could use it when you go back to school in the fall._

His brain made a very solid point. This could be a good practice opportunity, it’s not like he had to actually go out with Chuck’s son. He could just get the feel for being laid back while talking to someone who he knew was gay and single and it might help get rid of this weird mental block had.

“You know Sammy,” Dean said with a grin, “That actually sounds like some good advice. I just might take it.”

His brother grinned smugly. “Well of course it’s good advice Dean,” he replied, rising to sit up on the edge of the bed, “I thought of it.”

Dean laughed and ruffled Sam’s hair, causing the kid to yelp and quickly try to put it back in place, and headed downstairs with a bit of spring in his step; he was feeling much more relaxed about this afternoon and made the executive decision to celebrate by eating a late breakfast.

 

Several hours later, Dean was driving himself and his brother to Bobby’s house; their parents had to run to the store to grab something for the party from the grocery store and told them to just go ahead and drive themselves there. Several cars were parked in front of Bobby’s house already but Dean was able to find a place to park the Impala. As they walked toward the backyard, Dean felt the stirrings of some butterflies in his stomach but tamped them down; he reminded himself that he was fine.

There were already about twenty people at the party, spread out over the yard. Most of the mechanics were over with Bobby at the grill and the families were sitting in chairs under the pop up canopies Bobby had put up. Dean took a minute to scan the faces, looking for anyone who might be the guy his dad wanted him to meet; Sam tapped him on the arm, breaking him out of his reverie.

“That’s him, over there,” Sam said, pointing at a dark haired man by the coolers, “His name’s Castiel.”

Dean looked at Sam questioningly, “How do you know that?” He didn’t want to risk talking to the wrong person, that could be disastrous.

“Because Dad told me,” Sam said snarkily, “When Mom said they had to go to the store first, he told me to point him out to you. I’ve seen him a couple of times when I stopped by the shop to see you guys, he must’ve been there to see his dad.”

“Oh okay,” Dean said nervously. Part of him had been hoping the this guy, Castiel apparently, wouldn’t show up.

Sam didn’t pick up on Dean’s anxiety and ran over to sit next to a pretty blonde sitting in a circle with some other girls; that explained why Sam was in such a hurry to get here, Jess was at the party already. Dean stood awkwardly near the trash can Bobby had set up for cans, trying to settle on a plan of action.

Castiel was still standing by the coolers, peering inside a red one looking at the contents. Dean figured it might be best to get this over with soon so he could enjoy his time at the party plus since there wasn’t anyone else there, if he did act a bit goofy, it wouldn’t be that embarrassing. Decision made, Dean took a deep breath, fixed a smile on his face and walked over to where the dark haired man was hunched over the cooler.

“You looking for anything specific?” Dean said nonchalantly when he made it to the cooler. Castiel turned his head to squint up at him, blinking as sun light got into his eyes and laughed.

“Not really, just trying to dig out a drink from under this mountain of ice,” Castiel replied with a grin as he stood up so he wasn’t bent in half. Dean gulped a little when he got his first real glimpse at the other guy, he was pretty damn hot.

Castiel was dressed in a light green t-shirt that had a logo for ‘Hometown Bakery’ and a pair of light wash jeans that clung to muscular thighs; he also was sporting a head of spectacular bed head that had Dean’s fingers twitching with the urge to touch but it was the deep blue eyes that had all the thoughts of being laid back fleeing from his head.

Dean mentally shook himself, striving for his cool guy facade. He grinned and held out a hand to the other man, “Yeah Bobby likes his drinks cold even if it makes them hard to find, you must be Castiel,” he said with what he prayed was a charming grin as he shook the other man’s hand, “I’m Dean but I’m guessing your dad already told you that.”

The other man’s brows knitted in confusion as he shook Dean’s hand, “Nice to meet you Dean though I have to say, I don’t remember my father mentioning you. Do you work for Bobby too?”

All activity in Dean’s brain screeched to a horrible stop as his stomach clenched. The other guy didn’t have a single clue Dean existed, let alone that they were supposed to meet today.

_Oh shit, oh shit, this is not good_ , the panicking part of his mind supplied, _the dude doesn’t even have a clue who I am._

_Relax_ , a voice that sounded suspiciously like Sam’s said, _this is okay, just act natural, this just means you have a blank slate for your flirting. This is even better practice really, guys at school won’t have dads telling them who you are._

Realizing he hadn’t responded yet, Dean forced a somewhat believable laugh. “Oh sorry man, I just figured your dad would’ve told you the stories about what us mechanics get up to at the shop. I hear the people in the office get a kick out of us.”

That was a pretty damn nice recovery in Dean’s opinion even if his nerves still had his palms sweating and his voice sounded a bit strained even to him. Castiel’s face took on a less confused air and smiled. 

“Oh yeah, I’ve heard a story or two, I guess I’ve just forgotten who did what in them,” he chuckled. Dean noticed that they had drifted a little closer together; that had to be a good sign.

_Maybe this will still turn out okay_ , he thought to himself, _just remember to breath and act charming._

Now that he’d recovered from the initial hiccup, Dean reached into the cooler and grabbed a drink before turning back to Castiel, who hadn’t wandered away; Dean took the other man’s continued presence as an indication that he was still interested despite the awkward introduction and used his movement away from the cooler as a way to stand a little closer to Castiel.

They chatted for a few minutes about random things, how nice the weather was, how good the food smelled, the safe things to talk about with someone you’ve just met. Castiel, or Cas as he liked to be called, seemed like a pretty cool guy, a guy that Dean would admit to actually being attracted to; it looked like his dad had been right about them hitting it off. Dean decided to slip in a bit of somewhat obvious flirting and see how it went. There was a good possibility that a date might come out of all this.

“I have to say Cas, you seem like a pretty cool dude, maybe we should go out for a beer or something sometime when you have a free night,” Dean said in his smoothest voice. He was feeling pretty good since everything seemed to be going well so it really shouldn’t have been a surprise when the next moment blew everything to hell.

Castiel’s eyes widened in surprise and didn’t respond, the look on the man’s face caused an awful feeling to settle in Dean’s stomach. What if Cas wasn’t actually attracted to him? Maybe he was just being nice since his dad worked at the same place as he did. Dean was just going to try and recover from what was obviously a misread signal when things got exponentially worse.

“Cas,” a female voice said behind him, “You said you were going to get us drinks like twenty minutes ago. You get lost in the cooler or something?”

A pretty brunette in a pair of shorts and a tank top walked over to Cas and slipped a hand around his waist, twining her fingers into the other man’s belt loop. Dean’s eyes locked on the blatantly intimate gesture and felt like he was going to be sick; his hands started sweating profusely and swore he could feel his face getting pale and blushing at the same time.

_I’m hitting on a straight guy, a straight guy with a girlfriend_ , all parts of his brain panicked at once, _fuck, oh fuck! This is soooo bad, I need to get out of here, like right now!_

“Oh, uh, I think I hear my brother looking for me,” Dean said quickly in what he knew was a high pitched and panicky voice, despite the fact it was obvious to everyone present that no such thing was happening. “It was nice talking to you Castiel.”

And with that, Dean cemented his utter humiliation by tripping over a cooler as he turned to jog over to where Sam and Jess were sitting. He could practically feel Cas and his girlfriend staring at him and probably fighting the urge to laugh as he ran away; his face had to be cherry red in embarrassment. Sam gave him a concerned look when he sat down and looked like he was going to say something when Dean cut him off with a small shake of his head.

Dean sat in his chair, trying to ignore the strange looks everyone under their canopy was sending his way, his stomach was still swirling unpleasantly in embarrassment. He had almost succeeded in calming down when a low gravelly voice sounded behind him.

“Room for two more under here?” Cas said cheerfully, as if mere minutes earlier he hadn’t been embarrassingly hit on by Dean. One of the other mechanic’s wives said that she would go grab another chair since there was only one empty but Dean took the opportunity as the boon it was. Muttering something about leaving an nonexistent object in his car and offering his chair to Cas’ girlfriend, he hastily retreated from the backyard.

Once he reached the safety of the Impala, Dean sent a text to Sam saying he wasn’t feeling well and that he was going home to lay down. He got into the car and heaved a sigh, banging his head on the steering wheel for about a minute. As he started the car he noticed he’d only been at the party for fifteen minutes.

_Must be a new record_ , he thought bitterly to himself as he drove away, _fifteen minutes to make a complete idiot of myself in front of everyone I work with and their families. So much for the just be relaxed theory, Sam._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The bit about meeting someone who had no clue that I existed almost happened to me unfortunately. My dad had the grand plan to have my brother to introduce me to a friend's son and I almost did it until I asked what the guy knew about me since I knew it was a set up and knew a bit about the guy; when my dad didn't respond, I correctly guessed that the answer was not a damn thing so I made the executive decision not to go. With the exception of the hitting-on-a-straight-guy panic, Dean's experience is one possibility that I believe could have happened.


	4. Chapter 4

The last fifteen minutes had been probably some of the most confusing in his entire existence, which was saying something considering how many mind boggling situations Castiel had been in during his life due to his brother's incessant need to prank everyone around him. He watched as the man who’d introduced himself as Dean practically fled from the backyard looking obviously mortified until the other man disappeared out of sight around the corner of the house.

Castiel was still trying to process what had occurred by the coolers a few minutes ago; as far as he could tell, he had just been hit on by an insanely attractive man in the middle of a barbecue being thrown by his father’s boss Bobby right before the man freaked out and promptly fled the scene, tripping over a cooler as he went. He still couldn't figure out what had caused it; maybe he had paused longer than he thought in his shock that not only was a stunningly handsome man not only into men but also into him and asked him out.

As he sat under the canopy with Meg and some of the other guests, Castiel ran through the whole scene mentally, searching for a reason behind Dean's odd retreat.

Dean had broken the ice by asking if he needed help.

_Nothing strange there_ , he thought.

Castiel had responded and Dean introduced himself, obviously under the impression that he knew of him.

_Well, that had been a bit awkward_ , his brain conceded, _but it obviously wasn't enough for the man to run away._

He and Dean chatted about how nice a day it was, how hungry they were and other things; Dean had moved towards him, he was positive of that.

_So obviously he was interested_ , he mused.

Then Dean had asked him out and, after his initial shock at being asked out on a date by a literal Adonis, he had been about to say yes when Meg interrupted to ask...

Castiel sat upright in his chair as he had a light bulb moment. He would've smacked himself in the forehead if the action wouldn't have drawn stares from the other people at the party.

_Well, shit_ , he thought in surprise, _Dean probably assumed Meg is my girlfriend!_

Just great, he finally finds a guy who not only is interested in a date but who is drop dead gorgeous to boot, and he screwed it up with his cockamamie plan to ward off flirtatious women. 

"What hell is wrong with you Clarence?" Meg asked, low enough that the rest of the people under their canopy couldn't hear, her breath tickled his ear. "It looks like you want to smite something."

Castiel sighed and nodded his head over to where the picnic tables were, indicating they should move away so he could talk freely; his friend took the hint and soon they were sitting at a table where they wouldn't be overheard.

"So you think Mr. Hunky-pants thought you were actually here with me and that's why he rescinded his offer in such a spectacular fashion?" Meg summarized after Castiel gave her a rundown of what happened and his suspicions.

Castiel nodded, still a bit disappointed about the whole situation. He was picking dejectedly at the loose threads on the table cloth. "Yes, that about sums it up," he replied with a slight scowl, "If I had been man enough to come to this alone, I could've walked out with a date with a potentially nice guy but now he probably thinks I'm taken."

"And straight," Meg added unhelpfully. Castiel rolled his eyes in frustration.

"Yes, Meg. Thank you for that reminder," he said sarcastically as he yanked angrily at the stray string before heaving a sigh. 

What was the point in being upset really? It was disappointing, true, but it wasn't as if Castiel had come here expecting to meet someone so he might as well get over it. That thought really didn’t help cheer him up but eventually he was able to put his odd experience out of his mind and he was able to enjoy the rest of the picnic.

 

Later that evening, Castiel stopped by his parents house after dropping Meg off at home. He let himself into the house, took off his jacket and made his way to his father's office where, sure enough, he was typing away at his computer; Chuck Novak loved to write stories in his spare time so he was almost always in his office when he had a free moment.

Castiel knocked on the door. "Hello Father," he said to announce his presence. His father glanced up from his computer, eyebrows twisted in confusion and surprise.

“Hello Castiel,” he said slowly, “What are you doing here?”

That was the question wasn’t it? Castiel hadn't really considered what to actually ask his father about the incident at the cookout that afternoon. He supposed he could beat around the bush but, taking in the slightly unfocused look on his father's face the showed he was still in writing mode, Castiel decided the direct approach would be best.

"Were you supposed to introduce me to guy named Dean at the party today?" he asked, making sure to sound nonchalant, "introduce as in the blind date sense?" Castiel moved to sit in the chair in front of the desk.

His father's confusion deepened and he sat back in his cushy desk chair, raising his arms behind his head. "Dean? John Winchester's boy? Not that I know of. John has been saying that he thought you two might get along but I thought he just meant in general." As he said this a look of clarity showed on his face and he bopped himself in the head with his palm. "Oh, I keep forgetting that John's been trying to find some boys to set his son up with; just started out of the blue one day. That must've been what he meant when he said you two would be good together!"

A very clear picture of what happened here began to form in Castiel’s mind: John, well-meaning but slightly meddling, was trying to find a partner for his son and, knowing that Castiel is gay, approached his father to set something up. Unfortunately for all those involved, John forgot that his father's brain is like a sieve when it came to things not related to his writing and all of these factors lead to the unfortunate events of this afternoon. He told his father what he think happened and what actually did happen at the party.

“Ouch, that had to be so embarrassing for him,” his father said, cringing sympathetically, “No wonder he disappeared today. Shame though, from what I’ve seen of him, Dean’s a nice kid.”

Castiel had been playing with one of the many knick knacks decorating his father’s desk but carefully placed down the metal puzzle contraption that was in his hand and considered his father’s words. This was actually a nice segue to the main reason he stopped by to talk to his dad; there was something he needed to know.

“You think so?” he asked looking up. At his father’s puzzled look he continued, “That Dean is a nice guy? I thought so too but I wanted to get your opinion on him since you do work with him a bit.”

His father nodded firmly, “Oh definitely, the few times I’ve talked to him have been pleasant and he’s a hard worker. He seems like an upstanding fellow to me.”

Castiel hummed thoughtfully to himself.

This information made Castiel feel better and a little worse at the same time. Knowing that Dean was a good person just added to his appeal and added to Castiel’s surprise that the other man had deemed him good enough to ask out but this confirmation of Dean’s character also made him feel slightly bummed since, after this afternoon’s events, the chance of a date with Dean were next to zero. It had unfortunately been quite awhile since he had been on a date with a decent guy. Trying not to let his slight disappointment at losing the chance to get to know what he now knew was a decent man who had the added bonus of being gorgeous, Castiel visited with his father for a bit before heading home, doing his best to forget about the date that might have been.

 

Two weeks later Castiel had almost put the events of the infamous cookout behind him. Every once and awhile during that time, he would catch himself looking up when the bell that hung above the shop door chimed, cheerily announcing a new customer, to see if by some chance it was Dean. He reminded himself that he was being ridiculous and besides, he barely knew the guy and had only talked to him for about ten minutes, why was he even still thinking about him?

Castiel shook his head, trying to clear his mind, as he mopped the cafe area of the shop; a lady had dropped her latte earlier while attempting to open the door and it had spilled everywhere. It had been a relatively slow day though Gabriel said he had taken a big order for some sandwiches about an hour ago so that made up for the lack of walk-in customers he supposed. He checked the time and saw that it was almost time to put the finishing touches on a batch of special order cupcakes so he hurried to finish the floor. Just as his was working on the last bit of floor, Gabriel called for him from the kitchen.

“Hey Cassie! There’s a guy on the phone, says he’s from the fire department, wants to know about some bake sale stuff you promised,” his brother said as he stood in the doorway leading to the back, phone in his hands. Castiel leaned the mop against the table nearest the door and went to take the call; he’d been waiting for this call for a week, he could finish the floor in a minute.

As he was leaning against the counter and taking notes on when and where he needed to drop off his donation for the fire department’s annual bake sale, Castiel dimly heard the sound of the bell signalling that a customer had entered the store but ignored it; Gabriel was free to help who ever it was.

What Castiel couldn’t ignore was the short, loud yelp followed by a resounding crash. Castiel hurriedly, but politely, hung up the phone and looked up to see what had happened and blinked in surprise at what he saw.

Dean Winchester was currently laying in a heap on the floor of his shop.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi lovely people! Sorry about the wait, this chapter was fighting me a bit. It still seems a bit rocky to me, probably since I really wanted to just skip to Dean's next part, but I wanted to get Castiel's view of the unfortunate party events too so it had to be done. Hope you are all still enjoying the story and thanks for reading! :)


	5. Chapter 5

Dean spent the rest of that horrendous Saturday afternoon in his room, hiding in a blanket nest, binge-watching Dr. Sexy and ignoring the various texts from Sam and his parents while reliving how idiotic he had acted at Bobby's. Eventually he was able to lose himself in the various plot lines of the medical drama and idly fantasizing about the actor who played the hot doctor and soon he temporarily forgot about the train wreck that had occurred, at least until he heard the sounds downstairs that announced the return of his family.

He knew that someone was going to come check on him since there was no way his absence had gone unnoticed; it was only a matter of time really because all three of them had to know he wasn't sick and put that puzzle pieces together so the question was, who would be the one knocking on the door. 

Sure enough, there was a timid knock on the door.

_Ah, looks like Sammy is the big winner_ , Dean thought somewhat bitterly as he curled himself more tightly in his blanket. The knock was too quiet for his dad and his mom usually only knocked twice then called his name; that knock was all Sammy. Knowing that ignoring his brother would only result in one, or possibly both, of his parents showing up, Dean grumbled a quiet 'come in' that was shortly followed by the door opening to reveal a concerned looking Sam.

Dean internally groaned; he knew that look, the look that meant 'I feel so bad for you Dean, here let's talk about our feelings.' Dean really hated that look.

"Isn't this the episode that you said sucked because Dr. Sexy is hardly in it?" Sam said as normally as possible, as if Dean hadn't acted like a complete moron and wuss mere hours ago. He didn't wait for an answer to his question, he already knew how Dean felt about this episode, instead he walked over, kicked off his sneakers and forced Dean to shuffle over so he could stretch out on the bed too.

And that's how the next few hours went, the pair of them laying side by side on Dean's bed, staring at the TV in silence. They watched the rest of the episode Dean had been watching, the episode after that and were halfway through the episode where Dr. Sexy saves a guy using only the stuff in his car before Dean couldn't take the not-talking-about-the-elephant-in-the-room reverse psychology crap his brother was pulling. 

"He didn't even know we were being set up and to make things even better, he's straight and has a girlfriend," Dean said quietly. It felt strangely good to say it out loud, as if the whole damn experience seemed a tiny bit less terrible now that the words had been said.

Sam didn't respond right away; they watched as the nurse on screen ran to grab some sort of important medical thing that would save a girl's life before his brother broke the silence.

"Then I guess you get to just move on then," Sam said matter of factly. Dean opened his mouth to argue, how was he supposed to just get over looking like a complete fool, when Sam cut him off. "I know the situation seemed really bad but I swear Dean, no one but you and Castiel knows what happened; everyone else wasn't paying attention to you, at most people noticed you tripping but no one cared about that."

Dean stared pointedly at the TV screen, Sam could play therapist all he liked but Dean didn't have to believe it.

Sam huffed in frustration at Dean's lack of response. He took the remote from between them and paused the DVD. Dean attempted to protest but, once again, his little brother beat him to the punch.

"I know you're embarrassed Dean but think of it this way, it's not like you were really interested in the guy in the first place," he said, causing Dean to sit up and glare at him.

"How do know that?" Dean asked. Only his mom knew about the plan, how did Sammy find out?

Sam ran a hand through his shaggy hair and blew out a big breath. "Well, Mom and Dad may have gotten into a bit of an argument on the way home."

He then went on to tell Dean about how their mom had basically torn their dad a new one during the ride home once she found out about the fact that he didn't actually make sure that Chuck had talked to Castiel about the whole deal especially since it was obvious that the guy had a girlfriend. During this it was revealed that Dean really didn't want help finding a boyfriend and had only agreed to meet Castiel to get John to stop suggesting single guys every five minutes.

"He feels really bad about it Dean," Sam concluded, sitting up so his back was to the headboard. He gave Dean his patented puppy eyes, probably hoping to guilt Dean into feeling better and forgiving their bumbling but well meaning dad.

Dean sighed. "I'm not mad at Dad, I know he was just trying to help but I made a colossal moron out of myself today and," he took a deep breath and braced himself for what he was about to reveal, "This disaster didn't do anything to help the confidence issue I've been having with talking to guys I might be interested in."

There, he'd admitted his big secret. Sam turned to look at him, his face transitioning from confusion to understanding.

"So you were going to what, use this as a way to practice flirting with dudes and so the only reason you're upset is because it didn't go well, not because you were actually interested in Castiel?" Sam asked, seemingly ignoring the fact that his older brother had admitted he couldn't talk to boys like he was some sort of kid. It was obvious that the wheels were turning under that brown mane of hair.

Dean thought for a moment. He supposed that was true; he had gone into this whole thing planning on just practicing his man flirting skills, which Dean had to admit, seemed to be improving if the cookout snafu were looked at in a certain light. He hadn't actually expected to like Castiel, sure the guy turned out to be pretty nice, not to mention hot but also straight, so all in all it's not like Dean had truly been let down. 

_Besides_ , the optimistic part of his mind chimed in, _I've been embarrassed before, I can get over this too. A year from now I'll be able to laugh about this._

"Yeah, I guess so Sammy," Dean replied, "I'm not going to lie, I'll probably spend the next couple days recovering from the hit to my ego but, I think I'm going to be okay."

Sam patted him on the shoulder. "That's good to hear because Dad might be able to get out of the doghouse with Mom now. She was worried you might be emotionally scarred or something and blamed Dad for it."

They both laughed at this but Dean made a mental note to tell his mom he was fine and to tell Dad he didn't blame him for what happened. Sam suggested they go raid the freezer for ice cream, putting an unofficial end to their heart to heart chat about Dean's embarrassing incident and lack of love life, and so they trooped down the stairs to the kitchen.

As they sat at the table, digging into huge bowls of ice cream, Dean had to admit it that he did feel better now that he had talked to Sam and that, given time, he would be able to forget about his awkward encounter with Castiel Novak.

 

Two weeks later, Dean had been able to put the cookout disaster behind him.

He had told his dad that, while he appreciated the effort and show of support, he didn't need help finding a guy. His dad seemed to take this well and apologized for being meddlesome and not checking to make sure everyone was on the same page for the whole introduction thing, which Dean immediately forgave him for. After that, Dean’s life went back to the usual routine and he was content with that.

Currently Dean was elbows deep in a truck that had very obviously not been taken care of by its owner. There had been a large influx of customers the last week and unfortunately all the vehicles had needed a ton of work, which meant working lunches and a lot of overtime; Dean's savings account was ecstatic about this fact even if he wasn't.

There was a burst of noise as someone rapped their knuckles on the hood of the truck and Dean jumped slightly in surprise, having been absorbed in sorting out the truck's engine. He stood, cussing out who ever spooked him as he moved, only to turn around to see Bobby looking at him with a distinctly unimpressed look on his grizzled face. 

"Oh can it, ya idjit," the older man grumbled, "Like you've never interrupted me in the middle of a repair." Dean clammed up, instantly contrite, since he did have a habit of bugging his boss when he’s under the hood, usually causing the man to bang his head on something; once he was quiet Bobby continued, "It's your turn to pick up lunch today so if you wanna eat, you best get moving."

Ever since business had picked up to the point that it was all hands on deck all the time, Bobby had started to make it a habit to order lunch for all the mechanics. It was his way of saying thanks every day without having to say it and risk being labeled a softie; he insisted it was easier just feed them rather than keep track of who had left for lunch. This way only one person had to leave to pick up the food, in the few cases the restaurant didn't do delivery, and so they just decided to rotate who had to go on the food run on a daily basis; today was Dean's day apparently.

Dean grabbed a rag and started to clean his hands off. "Alright, alright, I'm moving," he said. He put down the rag and moved to unzip the top of his jumpsuit, tying the sleeves around his waist so he was down to his t-shirt; Dean sighed at the feel of the breeze coming through the garage bay doors, those jumpsuits were like ovens. "So where am I even going anyway?"

Bobby handed him a wad of bills and a list of what the order should contain so Dean could check it. "The bakery on third street. Apparently they make good sandwiches so I thought we'd give them a try, to break up the monotony."

Dean nodded in understanding and, after snagging the truck keys from his dad, headed out to grab the food. He drove with the windows down and the radio blaring, enjoying the break from the harried chaos of the garage. Soon he was pulling up to the building that said 'Hometown Bakery' and parking in front. As he turned off the truck and pocketed the keys, Dean felt a strange sense of deja vu at the sight of the logo but couldn't place it so he brushed to off and made his way inside.

As he entered the bakery, a bell chimed and Dean breathed in the intoxicating scent of baked goods; the smell immediately helped brighten his mood, it smelled so good, but that good mood evaporated completely once he glanced at the counter. What he saw there caused the bottom to fall out from his stomach and his breathing to hitch momentarily in shock.

Castiel Novak, with his dark windswept hair and blue eyes, was leaning over the counter as he talked on a phone and made notes on a notepad.

To say Dean panicked would be the understatement of the century. There was no way in hell he would be able to walk up to that counter and actually converse with a man who, two weeks ago, was witness to the one of the greatest examples of Dean’s shame in recent memory. He needed to get out of here, maybe go back to the shop and tell Bobby he got lost; he’d rather deal with Bobby’s irritation and anger than this, anything but this.

In a split second decision, Dean attempted to reverse his forward momentum so he could turn around and leave. He was already planning his escape out the door when he felt the sickening change in gravity that his brain correctly interpreted as his one booted foot sliding out from underneath him. Dean flailed his arms out, desperately trying to prevent the inevitable but somehow he knew it was useless; he let out a loud yelp as he lost his battle with physics and fell, hitting his head off the floor as he went.

Dean would swear he only blinked for a minute but the presence of two anxious faces looking down at him argued otherwise. He blinked slowly, trying to orient himself as he studied the two men looking down at him. One was blonde, had a lollipop stick in his mouth and looked mildly concerned with a side of amused while the other had messy black hair paired with worried blue eyes…

“Oh god,” Dean groaned disorientedly, reaching a hand up to rub the back of his head. “Not you, anyone but you.”

An expression that looked surprisingly like sadness passed quickly over Castiel’s face but was quickly forced back into one of concern. He reached out a hand to gently move Dean’s hand aside and gently prod at the sore spot at the back of Dean’s head; Dean let a out a pained groan as the fingers poked the area that had gotten smacked off the floor.

“I think it’s just a bump on the head, no sign of blood,” Castiel said, removing his hands and sitting back on his heels. “Do you feel well enough to sit up Dean?”

Dean nodded silently and slowly sat up; his sluggish brain was trying to form a plan of action. The first thought went through his mind was to just insist that he had to get back to work so he could leave and never come back; another was to use the knock to his head as an advantage, he could pretend he didn’t remember Castiel. While both of these ideas had merit, another part of his mind was saying screw it. Maybe it was due to the throbbing ache in his head lowering his patience level but part of Dean wanted just man up and deal with the situation; he should just treat Castiel like a regular guy.

With his mind made up, Dean held out a hand to Castiel. “Mind giving me a hand up Cas?” he said as casually as he could, “And you might want to put up a sign or something, that floor’s a bit slippery.” Castiel immediately stood up and reached down to help him up with help from the blonde guy.

“I am so sorry, I was mopping up a spill when a customer called,” Castiel explained, anxiously wringing his hands and looking at him with wide apologetic eyes that Dean most certainly did not get distracted by for a minute. “I should have just had them call back and finished the floor. Are you sure you’re okay?” The poor guy was practically hyperventilating near the end of his speech, probably afraid that Dean was going to sue him or something.

Dean gave him what he hoped was his most reassuring smile. “Don’t worry Cas, it was an accident. I’m not going to sue you or anything.”

“Well that’s a relief,” the blonde man said, “I just started to like this job, good to know we won’t be sued into oblivion over a wet floor. I’m going to go finish those sandwiches Cassie, have fun talking to Green Eyes here. Thanks for not being a douche-nozzle.” And as abruptly as he had begun speaking, the man patted Dean on the back and turned to walk back to what Dean assumed was the kitchen.

Castiel groaned and rubbed at his temple with one hand, obviously embarrassed by his strange employee. “You’ll have to excuse my brother Gabriel. He lacks the filter most sane people have between their brains and their mouths,” Castiel said with a grimace. 

“That’s alright,” Dean chuckled, “I have that problem sometimes to, I tend not to think before I talk but then you already know that.” There, he had acknowledged the elephant in the room; his plan was to just play it off a nothing and maybe Castiel would do the same. “Since I’m here, I wanted to say sorry for what happened at the cookout.”

“Oh, you don’t have to ---” Castiel started to say before Dean cut him off.

“No, I want to,” Dean insisted, “You see, my dad has been trying to set me up with guys all summer and it was driving me crazy so I figured if I just said I’d meet one of them, he would leave me alone. Unfortunately it seems that my dad isn’t very good at researching since you have a girlfriend and all.” Dean laughed self-deprecatingly and stuck his hands in his pockets. 

“Well, actually ---” Castiel began to speak again, raising a hand almost timidly, but it was like some switch had been flipped in Dean’s brain and he just could not stop talking. The rational part of his mind was regulated to the sidelines and could only watch as Dean went on and on about the disaster and made fun of himself while apologizing to Castiel.

“It’s mainly my fault,” Dean continued, his case of word vomit gaining more momentum every minute. He desperately wanted to stop but it was like he was stuck in talk-mode. “I finally came out at about two years ago and I guess my gaydar got lost in the mail.”

Dean’s eyes got wide as he realized what he had said, there was joking about an uncomfortable situation and then there was sharing way too much information; what he just said was obviously the later if Castiel’s shocked expression was any indication.

_Wow, I must be destined to make a complete ass of myself this guy every time we meet_ , he thought to himself. He reached a hand up to rub the back of his neck in embarrassment; Castiel still had yet to anything but gape at him.

"Uh, well, now that I've confirmed that I'm an embarrassing moron," Dean said awkwardly as he took small steps backwards and jabbing a thumb at the counter, "I'm just going to grab the lunch order my boss sent me for and, uh, go jump off a cliff or...something." Dean mentally slapped himself while his brain begged him to shut the fuck up. 

It was then that Dean noticed that Castiel had a strangely determined look on his face; at first Dean was worried he had finally made the man so uncomfortable that he was gearing himself up for banning Dean from his shop or something but then, to Dean shock and confusion, Castiel started to laugh. It wasn't a mean laugh, meant to shame Dean, but an almost happy and relieved one.

"Dean, there have been quite a few misunderstandings since we first met, I think it's time we clear a few things up," Castiel said with a smile as he held out his hand and continued, "Hi, my name is Castiel Novak; I'm currently single, looking and I'm most certainly not straight."

Dean reacted almost on reflex, reaching out to shake the proffered hand and found himself replying, "Hi Cas, I'm Dean Winchester. I have problems with interacting like a sane human being and I am gay and single too."

Castiel chuckled, a deep sound that sent a small shiver down Dean's spine. "There now that we're on the same page, how about I get your order rung up and you give me your number so I can text you later tonight before we go to dinner."

_Well that escalated quickly_ , Dean thought to himself as Castiel went behind the counter and began ringing up the garage's order. Not that he was complaining or anything, he was just a bit confused on how he went from being an awkward heap on the floor to being asked out by a hot, and apparently gay, baker.

Castiel put the sandwiches in a bag and gave him the total; Dean handed over the money in a bit of a haze. Once Dean had his change, Castiel continued to look at him expectantly, a small smirk on his face.

"Oh! You want my number!" Dean exclaimed, suddenly remembering what the other man was waiting for. Dean pulled out the pen he kept in his jumpsuit pocket and wrote his cell number on a slip of paper he ripped from the bottom of Bobby's list before hesitantly sliding it across the counter.

Castiel picked up the paper and put it in his pocket. "I normally close up shop around five so how does dinner at six sound to you?"

Still not daring to believe what was happening, Dean said that would work for him before grabbing the plastic bags containing the food.

"So, um..." Dean mumbled, not entire sure what the etiquette was when leaving the shop of a man who you had originally thought was straight but turned out to be gay and who asked you out right after you slipped and fell on your ass and then proceeded to have an embarrassing case of motormouth. There wasn't a manual for this.

Castiel smiled at him and solved his dilemma for him. "See you later Dean, I'll text you tonight letting you know where to meet me."

And with that final mind boggling statement, Castiel turned to go back to the kitchen and left a gobsmacked Dean standing in the middle of the bakery holding two bags of sandwiches, wondering what the hell just happened to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here you go lovely people! You can actually thank my job for the speediness of this update; the other day our system went down for six hours and I could literally do nothing so...I sat in my little cube and wrote fanfic on my iPod (not a bad way to spend the work day I think, haha). That's also probably why this one is so long but there was a lot to fit in here but I figured you guys wouldn't mind. :) Thanks for reading!


	6. Chapter 6

Castiel leaned back against the kitchen door, trying to collect his thoughts. He was going to have to add the last fifteen minutes to the growing list of strange moments in his life, which so far have all seemed to involve Dean Winchester. He dropped his head back against the wood and closed his eyes for a moment, taking stock of recent events.

Dean had slipped and fallen on his floor and, instead of threatening to sue like anyone else would, he started apologizing for hitting on him at the party; to which Castiel responded by declaring his sexuality and basically forcing Dean into a date. Not that he got the feeling the mechanic minded, if he were reading the man correctly, Dean was most definitely interested now that he knew Castiel was playing for his team. Pushing himself away from the door, Castiel grabbed his apron and secured it around his waist, smiling softly to himself all the while.

He had a date tonight.

He, Castiel, had a date with ruggedly handsome yet oddly adorable Dean. It hadn’t been his intention to ask the other man out, especially after his part in the awkward moment that occurred at the party, but after watching him babble and try to apologize for the imagined issue between them, Castiel knew he had to at least try to get to know him. There was something very charismatic about Dean, even while he was fumbling with his words and blushing; Castiel had a feeling the other man would be devastatingly charming when he was at ease, something he hoped to see tonight on their date.

 

“So, do I even have to ask who exactly that stud muffin was you were eye-fucking out there?” Gabriel asked without even turning from the counter he was wiping down.

Castiel sighed and turned from the cabinet he had been about to forage through for what he needed to finish a batch of cookies; he’d forgotten that Gabriel had seen him talking to Dean and there was no way in hell his brother would let an opportunity like this slide. He braced himself for the ridicule and uncomfortable sexual comments, abandoned his original task since it required concentration one didn’t have when trying to ward off annoying barbs from Gabriel and walked over to start scrubbing down some pans at the sink. At least he’d get the dishes down early today.

“You just did,” Castiel said dryly, rinsing a pan and setting it on the drying rack, “And that was Dean, he works with our father at the garage; he’s a mechanic there.”

Gabriel gave up on the pretext of cleaning the counters and sauntered over to lean against the sink, Castiel could tell he was grinning at him. “That doesn’t really explain why you were looking at him like you wanted to throw him over your shoulder and carry him off to your den like a caveman to do depraved things to him, Cassie. You were practically drooling all over his impressive biceps, lucky for him he was wearing coveralls,” he said teasingly.

“I was not looking at him like a neanderthal,” Castiel argued, his tone indignant if not totally believable even to his own ears. “And I am a professional, I don’t drool over customers.”

This of course was a lie and his brother knew it. He may have been staring at Dean a little bit but in his defense, it wasn’t his fault. Anyone would have been distracted by those muscular arms that were hugged by the sleeves of a slightly oil smudged white t-shirt that also covered a broad chest, not to mention the loosely tied jumpsuit sleeves that drew the eye down to trim hips and the muscular thighs below them. Add to that the slightly disheveled look that he could only assume came from working under a car hood all day, it was no wonder he had snuck a few extra long peeks; Castiel was only human after all. 

Castiel didn’t realize he had spaced out, thinking about what Dean might or might not wear under his coveralls and what he might look like bent over as he studied an engine, until his brother smacked him upside the head.

“Hey! Ground Control to Major Cas!” Gabriel said loudly, knocking Castiel back into the present, who blushed at being caught fantasizing and rubbed at his head irritably. His brother started unwrapping yet another lollipop before continuing airily, “I believe you were just denying that you wanted to jump the bones of the customer who slipped and fell on our floor?” He paused to suck on the candy for a second before continuing, “Hey, how did you know him anyway? He obviously knew who you were.”

Castiel absentmindedly wiped at a baking sheet, considering his options. He could just come clean, tell Gabriel the whole story but a part of him knew that he shouldn’t; Dean seemed embarrassed enough about the entire issue so he probably would not be pleased to find out that Castiel had been spreading the details around. If the positions had been reversed, Castiel figured he would appreciate some discretion too; it was probably best to keep it simple.

“I met him at that cookout we went to the other weekend,” he explained succinctly. He dried the last pan and wiped his hand on a dishtowel. “We talked a bit and he seemed like a nice guy.” Suddenly realizing that since he and Gabriel were both in the kitchen which meant no one was watching the front counter, Castiel attempted to escape to the safety of the shop but unfortunately for him, Gabriel followed so the baker attempted to ignore him by rearranging the display case.

“Oh, he seems like a nice guy,” his brother said, putting a suggestive emphasis on ‘nice guy’ and wriggling his eyebrows teasingly. He reached passed Castiel and snagged a chocolate glazed doughnut. “You find out if he plays for the same team or is this an ‘admire from afar’ situation because he prefers the ladies?” he continued through a mouthful of doughnut.

Grimacing at his brother’s horrible manners, Castiel thrust a napkin from the dispenser they had near the register in Gabriel’s face. He was quickly losing patience at the third degree interrogation over something that, to Gabriel’s knowledge anyway, shouldn’t be that big of a deal. Sibling interference was something Castiel didn’t usually have to deal with since his brother was usually out of state, or sometimes the country, and apparently it was highly annoying. “He is into men and I actually have a date with him tonight, does that make you happy?” Castiel told his brother somewhat petulantly, hoping to shock his brother into leaving him alone.

This declaration did indeed seem to surprise his brother as Gabriel coughed violently and promptly began choking on the oversized bite of doughnut he had just taken. Castiel, being the good brother that he was, handed him a bottle of water and gave him a good couple of whacks on the back to help him. Once Gabriel could breathe again, he dropped his half-eaten pastry on the counter and quickly pulled his shocked little brother into a crushing hug, pressing a squawking Castiel’s face to his chest.

_Well that backfired on me, didn’t it?_ he thought sourly to himself as Gabriel practically tried to suffocate him.

“Look at you little brother,” he exclaimed in a fake-sobbing voice and sniffing exaggeratedly, “All grown up and asking out men all on your own. Soon I’ll be giving you away at your wedding.”

Castiel struggled out of his brother’s surprisingly strong grip and scowled at him. “Dammit Gabriel, I’m a grown ass man and I have had dates, for your information. Now are you done harassing me? I have a business to run and you have a job to do.”

Heaving a great sigh and scratching his chin in a thoughtful manner, Gabriel grinned and shrugged his shoulders. “I suppose I’m done for the moment, I’ll be sure to alert you if I come up with any good zingers. If you need me, I’ll be tending to the pastry and caffeine needs of the masses.”

Luckily the arrival of a customer forced Gabriel to stop waxing poetic about his job duties and back to the register, allowing Castiel to retreat back to the kitchen; he had a few items to finish putting together for the afternoon. The customers who ordered them would be in near the end of the day to pick them up and the baker wanted to have them ready since he planned on cleaning up and leaving early. 

He did have a hot date to be ready for after all.

 

The rest of the day was blissfully uneventful, except for the usual antics from Gabriel which had be exacerbated by Dean’s visit, so Castiel was able to get the shop in order and ready to close an half hour before he usually would; his brother would only have to close out the register at the end of the day. Once he had endured more teasing from his brother, Castiel left the bakery in the dubiously competent hands of his sibling and headed upstairs. 

His first order of business was to take a shower, working in a hot kitchen with flour and sugar all day left him a little worse for wear, and he followed this up with a quick shave, something he had been putting off for a couple days. Once he was scrubbed up and clean shaven, he stood looking at the contents of his closet and his dresser for a minute. Deciding what to wear didn’t take too much thought since he had decided to take Dean to the local Italian place that he was fond of; it was very casual there so jeans and a shirt would be fine. It wasn’t until he was pulling on his jeans that he realized he hadn’t given any details to Dean yet so he sent a quick text to the mechanic.

_To Dean: Hello Dean. I’m sure you know who this is. In case you were wondering, the dress code for tonight is casual. :)_

Castiel studied his appearance in the mirror. He’d chosen a black muscle shirt which he topped with a lightweight blue and white plaid button down and jeans; his hair was it’s usual mess but he’d been told in the past that it made him look good so he didn’t worry too much about it. His phone pinged from its place on the dresser; the text was from an unknown number but Castiel immediately knew who it was from.

_From Unknown: Hey Cas. Noted on the dress code but are you going to tell me when and where we’re meeting?_

Grinning like a goofball, Castiel saved Dean’s number to his phone. He glanced at the clock and saw that it was a little after five thirty, grimacing slightly. One of the downsides of running a bakery meant that Castiel had to be up and working extremely early in the morning which meant that he tended to eat earlier than was normal for most people; it had been an issue for a few of the guys he’d dated before and he hoped Dean wouldn’t mind.

To Dean: If you’re not against eating early, would it be alright with you if we met at the pizza place on Market street in about twenty minutes?

Dean responded quickly saying that this would work for him so Castiel grabbed his wallet, keys and jacket before heading down the back stairs to the alley where he kept his bike. 

Most people, especially his mother, never missed an opportunity to tell him how dangerous motorcycles were but Castiel ignored them; he wore a helmet and was confident in his riding skills so there wasn’t anything to worry about besides, he enjoyed the freedom that riding a motorcycle brought him.

He swung a leg over the bike and, after it started up with a roar, he headed out to the restaurant.

 

When he parked his bike outside the pizza place, Castiel saw that Dean was already seated on a bench situated in front of the building. He looked a bit nervous, hands clasped together and one leg jumping up and down agitatedly; at first he must not have recognized that Castiel was the person on the bike parked in front of him since he continued to scan the parking lot anxiously. Castiel allowed himself a quick smirk before he began to take off his helmet; apparently there was something about his personality that caused people to be shocked at his form of transportation and it seemed that Dean was no different.

Dean’s eyes widened as he realized who was in front of him once Castiel had removed his helmet. The other man still had yet to say anything but he did rise off the bench to walk over; he seemed to be looking at him as if he were a strange curiosity. Castiel got off of his bike and hung his helmet from one of the handle bars. 

Castiel used the short walk over to Dean to admire the other man’s physique somewhat covertly and he liked what he saw; the mechanic was looking fantastically sexy in a forest green t-shirt, a pair of nice but worn looking jeans, that clung in all the right areas in Castiel’s humble opinion, and a pair of work boots. Once he was up close, Castiel could see that Dean was definitely nervous, as he had suspected, but there was definitely a look of want in those eyes; Dean liked what he saw too. Castiel allowed himself to feel a bit smug at this; he had a feeling this date was going to turn out just fine.

“Hello Dean,” he said to Dean with a grin and gestured towards the doors, “Shall we go inside?”


	7. Chapter 7

By some sort of miracle, Dean was able to dodge the questions from Bobby and the rest of the mechanics about what took him so damn long to pick up lunch; he spun them a lie about the bakery/cafe had being slammed by lunchtime customers so their large order took a bit longer to put together than anticipated. He’d been worried that his face and somewhat dazed manner would give him away but if anyone suspected that something had happened on his trip to the bakery, they kept their thoughts to themselves.

Time seemed to drag and fly by at the same time for the rest of the afternoon and Dean blamed his unexpected date for that. The part of him that wasn’t freaking out about what could possibly go wrong at dinner tonight was actually looking forward to seeing Cas again, especially now that he knew he hadn’t made a complete ass of himself when he hit on the guy since it turns out he wasn’t actually straight. Dean found himself looking at the clock more frequently than he usually would during the afternoon, slowly counting down the time until it was time to go home.

It wasn’t until his dad informed him that he would be waiting in the truck as he passed the workstation where Dean was putting away his tools for the night, that Dean realized he did have one problem; he had to decide what to tell his parents about where he was going tonight. After the fallout from the party, it was going to be a bit weird to admit that he had a date with the guy and Dean really didn’t feel like being interrogated tonight before going to dinner.

He spent the time it took to clean up his area as well as the trip home trying to come up with a way to let his parents know why he wouldn't be at dinner tonight. By the time they pulled into the driveway, Dean still had no clue on what say but he had decided that the best course of action was to at least tell his mom he had a date; he hoped she would have an idea on how to fly under his dad's radar on this one since Dean didn't want to get the man all excited right after things were finally normal again.

Decision made, Dean made his way to the kitchen instead of going up to his room like he normally would; his mom was in the kitchen alone, making supper.

"Hey Mom," he said timidly, "I was wondering if you could help me out with something."

His mom looked up from the pan she was stirring on the stove. “Of course honey, what’s wrong?” she replied, a hint of concern in her voice.

“Nothing’s wrong,” Dean quickly reassured her, waving his hands in front of him as if this would reinforce this. “It’s just...well you see…” he said, fumbling with his words as his mom looked at him in confusion before blurting out, “Ihaveadatetonight.”

Dean cringed at his inability to talk like a normal person but his mom just smiled in surprise; she left the stove and came over to pull him into a hug. “Oh honey, that’s great! Who is he, do I know him? Where are you going?” 

After he extracted himself from his mom’s grip, Dean sat down at the kitchen table and told his mom about what happened at the bakery, even the part where he fell on his ass, while she went back to fixing supper; he could tell from the slight shake in her shoulders that she was trying not to laugh and he appreciated the effort. He told her about how Cas cleared up a few of the misunderstandings that had caused the whole deal and how the guy had asked him out, not taking no for an answer.

“So now I have a date in about an hour and I have no idea how to avoid causing a ruckus with Dad,” Dean concluded, running a hand through his hair and grimacing at the grungy feel of it; he needed to take a shower soon so he was clean for his date. “If I tell him I have not just a date but a date with Cas, he’s going to make a big deal of it.”

To Dean's surprise, his mom actually laughed at this; she turned away from the stove with the pan of pasta she'd been stirring. "You're overthinking this Dean," she told him, amusement evident in her voice, as she drained her pasta. "You do know that all you have to say is you're going out, don't you? You're technically a grown man now sweetie; you don't have to explain why you're leaving the house every time you do. Just let us know when you expect to be home, that's all."

The idea that he didn't have to justify where he was going hadn't occurred to Dean but now that his mom mentioned it, it was the obvious choice. Dean snorted in slight amusement at his own stupidity and stood up from his seat at the table so he could give his mom a hug that lifted her feet off the floor.

"Thanks Mom," he said cheerily as he put his protesting mom back onto the floor. "I knew you would know what to do."

His mom then shooed him out of the kitchen with an admonishment to go get cleaned up before he had to leave to meet his "friend" so Dean loped up the stairs to get a shower. The shower was a quick but thorough one and by the time he was padding back to his room to get dressed, Dean was feeling pretty relaxed but that ease disappeared slightly when his phone beeped while he was throwing his dirty work clothes in the hamper. It was a text from an unknown number, meaning it was a text from Cas; Dean's stomach tightened with nerves.

What if Cas had changed his mind? he thought wildly to himself as he gingerly picked up his phone, as if it were an animal that could bite him at any second. What if all of it had been a big joke and his was Cas texting to say "Fooled you, I really am straight!"?

Steeling himself for what he thought was the inevitable downturn of his reasonably good day, Dean opened the text and was surprised to see it was just letting him know that wherever they were going tonight was apparently a casual place; this caused Dean to wonder where and when this whole date would be going on since Cas hadn't actually told him anything about tonight. Dean pulled up a blank text message.

_To Cas: Hey Cas. Noted on the dress code but are you going to tell me when and where we’re meeting?_

In order to distract himself from the butterflies currently having a rave in his stomach, Dean put on an episode of Dr. Sexy just for something to look at if even if he couldn’t really concentrate on it. The beginning credits had barely begun to roll when his phone beeped again.

_From Cas: If you’re not against eating early, would it be alright with you if we met at the pizza place on Market street in about twenty minutes?_

A pizza place. This was good, Dean could handle a pizza place and as an added bonus, it’s one that he has been to in the past and enjoyed their food. Dean texted back that everything sounded good and put his phone back down before looking at the clock. 

If Cas wanted to meet in twenty minutes, he should probably get going; when it came to dates, Dean preferred to arrive early rather than risk being late, a habit he started when he used to go on dates with girls in highschool and one that he continued now that he had come out. Dean turned off his TV and pulled on his boots as the butterflies apparently decided to start a mosh pit in his stomach now but he pushed down the sensation the best he could before heading down stairs.

 

Getting out of the house was, as his mom told him, way easier than he would have expected; his dad barely even moved when he stuck his head in the living room to tell his parents he was going out tonight and would probably be home pretty early. His dad grunted in acknowledgement, eyes fixed on the evening news, while his mom gave him a knowing grin and told him to have a good time; Sam was up in his room which meant one less person to have to get by on his way out and this didn’t bother Dean in the slightest.

The drive to the restaurant had been shockingly short, Dean blamed the nerves on that, but it was an opportunity to take his precious Baby out for a spin. It had been weeks since Dean had gotten to sit behind the wheel and listen to the throaty purr of the Impala’s engine which in Dean’s opinion was a tragedy; he made a mental note to find excuses to drive her more often, even if it was little trips to the store to pick things up for his mom.

When Dean finally made it to the restaurant and found a parking space, it was still about ten minutes before Cas had said to meet him. Dean debated with himself on whether he should just wait in the car, keep an eye out for the other man, and get out of the car when he showed up or to wait on one of the benches outside the building; the warmth of the evening eventually pushed him to decide on the bench, at least he could enjoy the breeze while he waited. 

Dean settled himself on the bench furthest from the entrance, it would just be awkward to be sitting right near the door when people walked by to enter the pizza place, and scanned the parking lot. After a few minutes he mentally cursed himself for not asking what sort of car Cas drove so he would know what to look for but soon he found himself musing on what kind of vehicle a guy like Cas drove.

The guy would obviously own his own car, that Dean knew for sure, after all the guy owned his own bakery so he was responsible enough to own his own car. Dean dismissed the idea that the other man drove a truck, Cas seemed like he would want something small and practical. This led to Dean wondering whether a guy who probably drove a Prius or something would react to his Baby. In his mind, Cas sneered at the older muscle car and berated him for how much gas it guzzled. Soon Dean was all worked up at the things Mental Cas was saying to him about why they wouldn’t work out: Dean is too weird, Dean’s car is impractical, Dean isn’t experienced enough with dating guys for him, and on and on the list went.

He was well on his way to working himself into actually being nervous enough to just bail, when the rumble of a motorcycle distracted him and Dean looked up to see a helmeted biker enter the parking lot and proceed to park at the curb in front of him.

The bike was an older model Harley with a deep yet bright blue colored paint job, probably mid to late 60s if Dean had to guess; his knowledge of bikes wasn't quite as extensive as his knowledge of cars but he knew enough to get by and to know that this bike was in incredibly good condition. The other thing that caught Dean's eye was the ease with which the obviously male rider was keeping the heavy bike upright between his legs as he started to remove the full helmet he was wearing, giving Dean a surprise flash of toned stomach when his t-shirt rode up briefly. Dean’s gaze travelled upwards as the helmet came off and he froze in shock.

Bakery owner Castiel, his date, was the one straddling that gorgeous bike, holding the helmet easily in his hands and smirking at him, blue eyes twinkling with mirth.

All of Dean’s previous thoughts about the man disappeared in a puff of smoke as he realized there was obviously quite a bit more to Cas than he previously thought if the worn jeans and well loved leather jacket coupled with the freaking motorcycle were taken into account. Cas swung a leg gracefully over the bike and, after hanging his helmet from on of the handlebars, proceeded to saunter, saunter being the only way to describe the movement, over towards him; the other man looked like he knew exactly what Dean had been thinking when he saw Cas on that bike and was enjoying himself. Dean could feel Cas’ eyes taking him in as the other man got closer, his gaze traveling down his body and it caused a small wave of heat to wash over him.

“Hello Dean,” Cas said in that gravelly voice that sent burst of energy down Dean’s spine, “Shall we go inside?”

The other man gestured off towards the doors; Dean swallowed thickly before answering, “Uh, yeah, sure.”

Cas smiled and led the way into the restaurant while Dean furiously berated himself. If he was going to survive this evening he needed to stop replaying how hot Cas looked astride his motorcycle, wrapped in that black leather jacket with his hair messed up from the helmet; Dean bet that’s what Cas’ hair would look like after a night of hot, sweaty…

_Stop right there, filthy brain!_ Dean shouted mentally, trying to bring that particular train of thought to a screeching halt. _I don’t want to add ‘awkward public boner’ to the list of embarrassing things I’ve done in front of Cas._

The pizza place was fairly busy but Cas found them a booth near the back. Dean slid into the one side while Cas took off his leather jacket, revealing a blue and white plaid shirt, the sleeves of which the other man rolled up before sitting down opposite him. They sat there in strained silence for a moment, not quite meeting each other’s eyes. Dean had just opened his mouth to speak, an action mirrored by Cas, when the waitress came over to ask what they would like to drink and to give them menus. Cas ordered a soda and, while beer was an option on the menu, Dean opted to get a soda too; he figured it would be best to be in full possession of his faculties during this date. The waitress smiled and went to get their drinks while they looked at the menu.

“Have you ever been here before?” Cas asked, breaking the silence but not the tension. “The pizza is excellent and they have really good sandwiches too.” His tone was light, lighter than Dean suspected his own would be.

Dean’s hands fiddled with the plastic menu. “I think we ordered lunch from here a few times, the garage I mean,” Dean clarified at Cas’ questioning look before continuing, “Bobby orders lunch for us sometimes when we’re really busy, that was what I was doing at your shop the other day.”

_Good job Dean_ , he thought to himself, _let’s just remind the guy about how you fell on your ass and then admitted you’re a social moron._

Both of them fell silent again and, once again, the silence was broken by the arrival of their waitress with the drinks. She asked if they’d decided what they’d like; Castiel ordered them a pepperoni pizza to share, after looking at Dean questioningly to see if he objected which he didn’t. Pizza was pizza in Dean’s opinion and strangely enough he trusted Cas to order for them but this didn’t stop the heavy quiet from settling over the booth once the perky young waitress left. After what seemed like an eon of uncomfortable silence but was probably about a minute, Castiel sighed wearily and leaned forward on the table, his hands clasped loosely in front of him.

“Dean, if this whole date thing is going to work, it would help if you relaxed a bit,” Castiel said not unkindly while looking pointedly at Dean’s hands which were nervously tearing up a paper napkin. Once Dean was aware of this, he dropped the pieces of paper and blushed.

“I’ve got to be honest Cas,” Dean replied, rubbing the back of his neck before looking up to meet those crystal blue eyes. “After the last two times we’ve been in the same area, I’m a little afraid of what might happen if I open my mouth.”

The other man seemed to consider this for a minute before smiling like an idea had just struck him. “Alright Dean, if that is what you’re worried about, how about we pretend that this is the date that you asked me on at the party and that I said yes instead of being interrupted by my best friend/flirtatious women shield.”

“Your what?” Dean asked in surprised confusion, totally forgetting his anxiety about what embarrassing things he might do. The waitress dropped off their pizza and Dean put a slice on his plate; it smelled heavenly but Dean was more interested in what Cas had to say.

Castiel chuckled to himself as he reached out for slice too. “Well, it’s a bit of a long story…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello lovely people! I apologizes profusely for how long it took for me to get this chapter around. I was having a hard time doing motorcycle research (big thanks to Destielsuperfanfic for the assistance on motorcycle knowledge!) and work has been crazy plus the added disaster of my little sister stealing my iPod and finding my fanfic (she claims she won't tease me about it or tell anyone else but I'm not so sure). I didn't really do a lot of proofreading so I'll have to come back and tidy up later but I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for reading :)


	8. Chapter 8

Castiel was having one of, if not the, best dates of his life.

Once he had cleared up the leftover confusion concerning Meg’s role in the odd circumstances of their first meeting, a story that had Dean snorting in laughter which was way more attractive than it had any right to be, the air in the booth relaxed astronomically. It seemed that now that Dean knew that Castiel was just as embarrassed at his own part in causing all the uncalled for tension in all their interactions, he was finally able to relax and Castiel found that he was right, a laid back Dean Winchester was an extremely charming character that he found hard to resist. Not that he was trying in the slightest.

They talked about a variety of topics spanning Dean’s summer job as a mechanic and Castiel’s business to favorite movies and TV shows and annoying antics of their brothers; the story of how when he was a kid, he once spent almost two hours following a random wire that Gabriel claimed would lead to a surprise, had Dean laughing so hard there were tears in his eyes.

“So there I was running around the backyard, tugging on a wire that supposedly led to this amazing surprise,” Castiel said between pauses to chuckle at the mere memory, his hands toying with the wrapper from his straw. “Apparently he had bought a humongous spool of wire at a yardsale for a dollar and thought it would be funny to see how long I would follow it.”

Dean laughed and absentmindedly took a sip of his drink. “So how long was the wire?”

“Long enough to take me all through the house, out into the yard, under every single shrub in our yard and the neighbor’s before leading me to the end of the block via the most difficult route imaginable,” Castiel said with a grin, before leaning back to rest against the padded bench, hands laced behind his head. “So if my math is correct, about a mile and a half.”

“Oh man Cas,” Dean replied, a bit breathless from laughing, “Not to sound like a jerk, but that sounds hilarious.”

Castiel couldn’t find it in himself to be even a little upset that his date was laughing at him, he was too busy being distracted by the curve of Dean’s smirking mouth; hopefully by the end of the night he just might get the opportunity to see if they were as soft as he thought they appeared.

Suddenly the waitress appeared, jolting Castiel out of his reverie, and placed the bill on the table before asking if they wanted a box for the few pieces of pizza that were left; Castiel hadn’t even realized how much time had passed and looked around. There weren’t that many patrons left in the little restaurant besides him and Dean. Dean told her that would be great and, once she left, he reached for the bill. Castiel snaked out a hand and snatched it before the other man could grab it. Dean looked up at him in confusion.

“Ah, ah, ah,” Castiel said in a slightly teasing tone, smirking at his date, “You really don’t think I’m going to ask you out and then let you pay for your dinner do you?”

A slight blush crept over Dean’s cheeks, “Oh, well I guess I’ve gotten into the habit of being the payer and not the payee when it comes to dates,” he said sheepishly before explaining, “Like I said at the bakery the other day, I’m new to this whole dating men thing. In highschool I went on a few dates with some girls just to give it a try and I haven’t really had time for it at college so those constitute my entire experience of dating. I feel a bit weird not paying I guess.” 

That was right, Castiel had almost forgotten that Dean had admitted to not having a lot of experience with men and now that he knew that his only dates had been with girls, that explained a lot about why Dean had been acting so odd; he wasn’t sure what to do with himself considering the fact that he was on the opposite of the equation for once. 

“Well, since I’m the one who asked you out,” Castiel explained as he put the money for their meal into the little folder holding their bill before placing a generous tip on the table for the waitress, “I’m the one who pays. If it makes you feel better, the next time we go out you can pick what we do and pay.”

Castiel hoped he wasn’t being too presumptuous by implying that there would be a second date, everything had gone so well tonight, once they had cut through all the misunderstandings and incorrect assumptions that had led them here, that he thought another date was a given. He looked over to see that Dean was looking at him in surprise, green eyes stared at him in what was almost awe.

“You...you want another date with me?” Dean asked in disbelief. 

Before Castiel could answer, the waitress appeared again, this time with two takeout containers. Castiel thanked the young woman and put some of the remaining food into each container before sliding one over to Dean and answering the other man’s question.

“Of course I would like another date Dean,” he replied in a matter of fact tone, not quite understanding why this information would be shocking. Maybe Dean wasn’t really that interested in another date. “I think you’re a very fun and interesting person and I’d like to get to know you better; I thought you felt the same but if you don’t…”

“Oh no, I’m definitely interested,” Dean interrupted quickly before blushing at the eagerness of his reply. Castiel had a feeling he would be seeing that sight quite a bit in the future, Dean seemed to get flustered easily.

Castiel made his way out of the booth and grabbed his jacket and food, “Good, you’ll have to let me know when you decide on what we’ll be doing next time.”

Dean got out of the booth after grabbing his container and together they left the pizza place. There weren’t many cars left in the parking lot and it was just barely starting to get dark. They walked slowly side by side towards the bench in front of where Castiel had parked his bike; they were walking close enough for their hands to occasionally brush but not as close as Castiel wished they were. Neither of them spoke as they stopped in front his bike but this silence wasn’t tinged with tension like the ones from the beginning of the date, or at least not the same kind of tension.

“Oh, I almost forgot,” Dean said, almost startling Castiel with the suddenness of it, especially since he’d been frantically thinking of what he should say. “I wanted to tell you, nice bike. Mid sixties Harley right?”

A smile spread over Castiel’s face at this, he always enjoyed it when the person he was interested in like his bike. Some people tried to give him a lecture on how dangerous they were or how impractical they were to have instead of a car so those dates typically went anywhere and he really wanted this date with Dean to lead somewhere. Dean was a funny, nice and interesting guy who just happened to be one of the most attractive men Castiel had ever seen and to top it off, apparently he liked motorcycles and knew a bit about them; this new revelation was added to the growing list of reasons that Castiel wanted to just reach out and crash his lips against the other man’s.

Fighting off that particular impulse since Dean might not appreciate being jumped, Castiel chose to focus on what Dean had just said. “Thanks,” he said walking over to lightly caress one of the handlebars. Dean followed and was looking at his bike with interest, something that caused warmth to fill Castiel’s chest. “1967 actually, you must know a bit about bikes. Feel free to check her out if you want.”

Castiel didn’t know what possessed him to say this but as soon as he did, Dean eagerly passed him his container and swung a leg over his bike and sat down, seeming to try and get a feel for it and Castiel somewhat regretted his decision. Dean Winchester sitting easily on his motorcycle was a thing of beauty; Castiel’s mouth went a bit dry and he felt a quick flash of heat spike down his spine as he took in the sight of Dean astride his bike. Dean looked practically at home on his motorcycle which caused the thought of what Dean would feel like pressed up against his back as they flew down the high to race through his mind. It had been a long time since he’d taken anybody riding with him and it wasn’t until now that he realized just how much he missed it.

“Maybe I could take you for a ride sometime,” Castiel said without thinking. 

Dean’s eyes went wide and he looked over at Castiel with a slightly shocked expression. For a split second Castiel didn’t understand why Dean was looking at him like that but then he realized how that last statement could have been taken.

“On my bike! Of course I meant, I could take you on my bike, you know, for a motorcycle ride,” Castiel exclaimed hurriedly, his face heating up in embarrassment. If this is what if felt like to make a fool of yourself in front of someone you hoped to impress, Castiel could see why Dean had been acting the way he had been; this was an awful feeling.

Dean’s face relaxed and he laughed. “I figured that’s what you meant,” he said with a chuckle. He got off of Castiel’s bike and walked over to stand in front of him. “Don’t worry about it, I’ve already said a bunch of embarrassing things, it was about time you did too.”

They both laughed at this and the budding awkwardness that had been started by Castiel’s unfortunate phrasing was squashed. Dean reached a hand out to for his takeout container but stopped as their eyes met and the air around them started sparking with energy.

Castiel’s heartbeat sped up and his skin tingled as he got lost in those deep green eyes, only to be pulled away from them by the motion of Dean’s tongue darting out to moisten his lips. They drifted closer together, Castiel could feel the heat of Dean’s body, but neither of them spoke or made a move. 

Suddenly making an executive decision because he just couldn’t take it anymore, Castiel dropped the styrofoam takeout containers and before Dean could register what was happening, he grabbed the other man by the back of the neck and pulled him in, crashing their mouths together.

Dean made a surprised grunting noise but quickly got on board, raising a hand to cup Castiel’s cheek; his skin was burning hot on Castiel’s and the sensation sent heat racing through the rest of his body. Castiel tangled his fingers more firmly in the short hair at the base of Dean’s skull and pulled so they were chest to chest, helping them get a better angle as their mouths moved against each other. 

The kiss was chaste, just lips on lips, but it was still in the top ten of the hottest kisses Castiel had had the pleasure of being apart of; Dean’s lips were as soft and plush as he had thought they would be. He slid his other hand around Dean’s waist, feeling the soft cotton of the other man’s t-shirt, so he pull them completely flush together from chest to knees and they both groaned into the kiss when their groins brushed against each other. Dean took the opportunity to tentatively trail a hand down Castiel’s side to palm his ass; the feeling of which caused Castiel to gasp in surprise, breaking the kiss.

They stood there, in the middle of the almost deserted parking lot, chests heaving and panting as they tried to catch their breath. Castiel released the grip he had on Dean’s hair and slowly slid his hand down so it rested over the other man’s heart, feeling the frantic beating under his palm that most certainly matched his own.

Neither of them moved to step away and out of the other’s personal space. Dean looked at him sheepishly as he unconsciously brushed his thumb back and forth over Castiel’s hip. “So, um, that was...pretty damn awesome,” he said stiltedly before grinning at him.

Castiel burst out laughing and Dean quickly joined him; soon they fell silent again and Castiel rested his forehead against Dean’s and closed his eyes so he could just enjoy having another person this close to him. 

Eventually Dean sighed and gently disentangled himself from Castiel and bent over to pick up the fallen leftovers, which shockingly were still in their containers. Handing one to Castiel, Dean smiled and quietly said good night and reluctantly left to find his own car. In a pleasant haze, Castiel put the takeout container in the backpack he kept strapped to his bike and was about to put his helmet on when he paused, digging around in his pocket for his phone. He quickly shot a text to Dean before putting on his helmet and starting up his bike.

_To Dean: You better not make me wait long for that next date ;)_

 

Over the next week, he and Dean texted every day; it wasn’t as often as either of them wanted but considering they worked most of the day, it was still quite a bit.

Dean would grump about having to get up early in the morning and was hilariously scandalized at how early Castiel’s days began while Castiel would complain about Gabriel’s shenanigans at the shop, most of which caused Dean a substantial amount of amusement. One way or another they would end up talking on the phone at the end of the day for a little while until Castiel had to get ready for bed. Sometimes they continued talking about their days or learning about one another. Tonight however, they were watching a movie together, so to speak.

“I can’t think of a time that I’ve been able to scroll past The Mummy when it’s on TV,” Dean said conversationally as they watched Evelyn try to negotiate Rick O’Connell’s release from the gallows.

Castiel was sprawled out on the couch in his pajamas with his phone set to speaker while it rested on his chest, half watching the movie and taking in Dean’s commentary and half trying to decide it were possible to go to bed just a little bit later; he didn’t want to have to hang up.

“It does seem to be one of those movies that never gets old,” he agreed, trying not to sound tired. The other night Dean had hung up on him after declaring that Castiel needed more sleep after he couldn’t stop yawning but in his defense, it had been an unusually busy day at the shop that day and sometimes the heat of the kitchen made him a bit sleepy. Though he did have to admit, it was pretty sweet of Dean to care whether or not he was getting enough sleep.

They were both quiet as they watched the watched the movie. It may have seemed strange to be sitting on the phone in silence but there was something strangely satisfying about having someone to watch TV with, even if they weren’t physically there.

If asked, Castiel would swear he only closed his eye for a minute because that’s all the longer it felt before he was jolted awake by Dean calling his name; he snorted in surprise and flailed a bit on the couch, almost dropping his phone onto the floor in the process.

“What was that Dean?” Castiel said, as nonchalantly as possible, trying to act like he hadn’t been caught napping. “I was distracted by something on my computer.”

Dean laughed that low laugh of his and Castiel could practically see the knowing smirk on his face. “Yeah, sure Cas. You were distracted, definitely not sleeping.”

Castiel scowled at the phone despite the fact Dean couldn’t see him. “I wasn’t sleeping,” he said irritably but not with any malice, “Now what were you trying to tell me?”

“Well, I wanted to run something by you,” Dean said almost timidly. Castiel sat up on the couch, not wanting to doze off again, and muted the TV so he could hear better, wondering where this was going. “There’s this special all night movie festival at the drive in this Friday night and I was wondering, if you would like that sort of thing, if maybe we could go there, you know, for our next date?”

A drive in movie date. It wasn’t something that Castiel would have thought of for a night out but now that he thought about it, it sounded like a pretty nice idea for a date. Drive in’s had a bit of an old fashioned feel to them and, on the few that he’d been on, they were tons of fun; the idea of watching old movies, eating classic movie junk food, not having to worry about armrests getting in the way and all of this with the added bonus of things maybe getting a little handsy was an extremely appealing.

“I would love to go to the drive in with you Dean,” Castiel replied, grinning stupidly into the phone. 

There was a sigh of relief over the phone and Dean laughed, “Good, I was worried you might think watching old movies would be boring.”

“There’s nothing wrong with old movies,” Castiel said before chuckling lowly, “Besides, there’s one advantage to drive ins Dean. If the movie gets a bit slow, there’s other ways to pass the time.” 

Castiel allowed himself a few seconds to enjoy Dean’s flustered sputtering on the other end of the line before he said that he’d better get ready for bed. Dean told him goodnight and that he would text him later with the date details. Hanging up the phone, Castiel sat on his couch for a minute as he contemplated his plans for Friday night before getting up to prepare for bed, smiling slightly to himself the whole time.

If Dean got that flustered at the mere mention of drive in shenanigans, Castiel had a feeling that Friday night was going to be extremely interesting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just out of curiosity, can anyone tell where I got the idea for Gabriel's prank?


	9. Chapter 9

All day Friday, Dean worried.

He worried that Cas would have to cancel on him. He worried that they would get to the drive in too late and find out that there was no more room left in the parking area. He worried that he might misinterpret any signals that Cas sent him during the movie and either make a move when he didn’t want it, making him look like a perv or miss the signal and look like a clueless moron, thereby missing the opportunity to kiss Cas again. Something that Dean really really wanted to do again.

If his family or coworkers had noticed him acting oddly, they didn’t say anything and as soon as four o’clock rolled around at the garage, Dean was hurriedly cleaning up his station and handing over the paperwork from the car he was working on so he could get home and clean up. He wasn’t picking Cas up at his place until closer to eight since the drive in movies obviously couldn’t start until it got dark but he didn’t want to risk not having enough time to get ready. It had nothing to do with how anxious he was to see Cas again.

Dean was not ashamed to admit that he had been blown away when Cas kissed him in the parking lot after their first date and had been thinking of it at least once a day all week. It had been shockingly intense and hot despite the fact that there wasn’t even any tongue involved or hardcore groping and he wanted more. This had been an unacknowledged part of his motivation to ask Cas to go with him to the drive in; a motivation that, if the other man’s statement during the call when Dean asked him out was used as evidence, Cas had picked up on and apparently agreed with.

The idea that Cas was interested in taking things a bit further both elated and terrified Dean at the same time. He was excited because Cas, incredibly hot and sexy Cas, had implied he wanted to neck at the drive in with him but he was also freaking out because Cas wanted to make out with him. Dean did have some experience with guys when it came to the physical side of things, he’d done quite a bit of experimenting while he’d been away at school, but those had been one night stands and flings, what if things were different if you wanted things to progress past sex?

This dilemma was why there was a slight bit of sweat clinging to Dean’s forehead that had nothing to do with exertion as he walked up the backstairs that Cas told him to use to get to the man’s apartment over the bakery. When Dean had texted to say he was on his way over, Cas had responded by saying to just come up to the apartment since he was running a bit late and was about to get in the shower. Like Dean really needed to add the image of Cas naked and wet in the shower to his nerves right now.

Arriving at the door to Cas’ apartment, Dean took a minute to adjust his hair and clothes before knocking tentatively on the door. He could hear a faint ‘just a second’ from inside followed by the scuffle of someone hurrying to the door which opened to reveal Cas who had obviously just gotten out of his shower. 

Cas was wearing a plain white t-shirt and jeans but was barefoot with tousled wet hair; Dean may or may not have forgotten what he had been about to say, something along the lines of ‘hello’ probably but it all fell right out of his head at this sight but luckily for him Cas saved him from babbling aimlessly by inviting him in.

“Apologies for not being ready,” Cas said as he closed the door and led him down a hallway and into a comfortably furnished living room. After indicating that Dean should sit, he proceeded to pull on his socks and shoes. “We had a last minute order for some cupcakes and I wasn’t going to turn them down since they’ve been buying from me since day one but I guess I overestimated my ability to get around quickly. I hope I haven’t made us late for the festival.”

Dean shifted forward in his seat, raising his hands placatingly, “Oh, no worries Cas, I planned to get us there early so we’ll be fine besides you gotta do what you gotta do to for your business. I understand,” he said, hoping to sound soothing and laid back considering his own nerves about tonight.

Having finished putting on his shoes, Cas looked up and grinned, “Good, I’d hate to think we’d be missing out on prime drive in action just because I had to make a batch of cupcakes. Just give me a minute to grab a sweatshirt for when it gets colder later tonight and I’ll be ready.”

The other man got off the couch and disappeared down a short hallway that obviously led to his bedroom, leaving Dean alone in the living room to mull over what he’d just said.

“Prime drive in action.”

_Holy shit, Cas does want to get a bit frisky tonight!_ Dean thought wildly to himself, as his heart started to beat a bit faster in his chest. 

_Calm down_ , another part of Dean’s brain chimed in just as he was working himself towards hyperventilating, _you’re making this out to be harder than it is, you’ve already kissed the man for pete’s sake._

This was true, if Cas really was hinting that they might get to second base tonight, why was he getting nervous? It was obvious from their goodnight kiss on their first date, they had great chemistry, Cas seemed to enjoy himself and Dean knew that he himself did too. Resolving to be cool about this, Dean stood up from the couch just as Cas came back into the room, carrying a worn looking maroon hoodie.

Cas grabbed his wallet and keys off of the coffee table and they headed out of the apartment, down to where Dean had parked in front of the now darkened bakery. Truth be told, Dean was distracted from his nerves since this was the first time Cas would see his beloved Impala and he was excited to see what the other man would think considering his love of classic motorcycles; hopefully that interest spilled over into cars. He’d already told Cas about his car during their nightly conversations and the man seemed amused, if not intrigued, by Dean’s enthusiasm for his car so he held out hope.

“So this is the famous Impala,” Cas said as they rounded the corner of the building. “She’s gorgeous Dean, you weren’t exaggerating about the work you’ve put in her.”

They walked over to the car and Dean stood on the driver’s side as he watched Cas walk around to the passenger side, trailing his fingers lightly across the shining paint job of the hood as he went. “So what year is she again?” Cas asked once they were in the car, “I’m ashamed to say I don’t know too much about cars, mainly bikes.”

Dean started the car, the rumble of the engine giving him another healthy dose of confidence so he felt good enough to send a flirtatious smirk at the man sitting in the passenger seat as he pulled the car out onto the street. Cas returned this with a smirk of his own and Dean’s stomach fluttered in a not unpleasant way.

“That’s alright Cas, you’ve at least got the good sense to know a good thing when you see it. My Baby is a 1967 Impala,” Dean said, his voice tinged with pride. “Dad was driving her when he got into a bit of an accident a few years ago. I fixed her up so she was good as new and Dad decided that I should keep her.”

“Well she’s definitely in good hands,” Cas replied, turning in his seat to inspect the interior of the car before turning to grin brightly at Dean. “A classic car for a classic drive in date to watch classic movies, tonight is going to be so much fun.”

Dean used the pause at a stop sign to look over at Cas. He really did look excited about tonight; his blue eyes were shining with energy and Dean swore he saw a bit of mischief in those eyes.

“I think you’re right Cas,” Dean said with a matching expression, “Tonight is going to be awesome.”

 

Despite getting a later start than he wanted, they arrived at the drive in with plenty of time to spare. Most of the spots closest to the screen were taken meaning they were regulated to one of the back corners but neither of them complained; the part of filthy part of Dean’s mind that was eagerly hoping that he and Cas would be moving to the back seat at some point reasoned that being in the secluded part of the parking lot wasn’t exactly a bad thing.

Once they were parked, Dean went to the snack bar and bought a few snacks, enough to get them through the first couple of movies. He walked carefully back to the car as the giant screen came to life and found Cas tuning the radio to the station they were given at the admission booth. He handed the drinks through the window before sliding behind the wheel again to find that Cas hadn’t bothered to scooch back over to the passenger seat and had instead settled comfortably in the center of the bench seat. 

_That’s a signal Winchester_ , Dean thought frantically to himself, _Cas wants to canoodle in the front seat._

Remembering his resolve to act cool, Dean pushed his worrying thoughts away and, after swallowing his nerves, slid sideways so that he was sitting hip to hip with Cas. There was a nerve-wracking moment when Cas stiffened slightly but soon Dean caught the sight of the other man smiling slightly out of the corner of his eye as he settled into Dean’s side. 

They sat like this for the rest of the previews and over half of the first film, a cheesy B-horror movie with obviously rubber monsters, before Dean worked up the move to return the signal. Dean took a calming breath and enacted a slightly modified version of the classic yawn and stretch maneuver by excluding the yawn but pretending to stretch out both his arms and conveniently deciding to rest his right arm on the back of the seat. He waited with bated breath to see how Cas would react.

To his surprise, the other man almost immediately shifted into the space left behind from moving his arm and, shocking Dean even further, rested his head on Dean’s shoulder. Dean couldn’t help the satisfied smirk from gracing his lips.

_That’s right_ , Dean thought smugly to himself as he gently rested his hand on Cas’ shoulder, _look at me being all suave and shit._

“Those are some smooth moves Dean,” Cas’ obviously amused voice sounded suddenly, breaking Dean out of his congratulatory thoughts. He snuggled further into Dean’s side before placing a hand on Dean’s thigh and looking up, mischief blatantly etched across his face. “I guess I’ll have to up my game if I’m going to keep up with you.”

Dean gulped; Cas’ voice was practically dripping with promises and that, coupled with the way he was gently rubbing his hand over his thigh, well, Dean wasn’t ashamed to admit that all of this may have shorted his brain out for a second. Cas shifted in his seat so he was sitting upright and turned so he was facing Dean more fully.

“We’ve got a classic car and classic movies at a drive in theater,” Cas said innocently, face downcast so he was looking up a Dean slyly through his lashes. He leaned up to whisper in Dean’s ear, the heat of his breath sent a shiver down Dean’s spine. “How about we go for broke with an old school necking session?”

Not needing to be told twice, Dean reached out and wrapped his arms around Cas while twining a hand in that dark messy hair so he could crash their mouths together. Cas slipped his arm around Dean’s waist and rested the other on his thigh and moaned happily into the kiss. Unlike their first kiss, this one didn’t remain chaste for long; soon Cas’s mouth parted so his tongue could dart out to prod gently yet insistently at the seam of Dean’s mouth, asking permission Dean was very eager to give.

The movie was completely forgotten as their mouths moved together, only breaking apart to take quick gasps of air before colliding together again; the soundtrack of the movie, which may have switched over to another title while they were...occupied, was drowned out by the sounds of soft gasps, muffled groans and panting breath. Dean ran his hands over as much of Cas as he could reach; his hands brushed gently up and down the other man’s back and sides before timidly slipping under the hem of his t-shirt so he could touch Cas’ burning hot skin causing Cas to try and press even closer than he already was. Meanwhile Cas was apparently trying to drive Dean insane; his wicked tongue was moving sinfully in Dean’s mouth while one of his hands tangled firmly in his hair, tugging gently and causing Dean to groan softly at the sensation, and the other hand rubbed a mind numbing pattern just to the side of Dean’s crotch.

Dean felt like he was going to explode; all of the sensations, Cas’ hot mouth on his, those skillful hands dancing around his body and sliding under his t-shirt, the light tugs to his scalp, were all sending wave after wave of heat to his crotch. He knew he wasn’t alone though; his hand had brushed the front of Cas’ jeans, where he’d found a prominent bulge, and Cas had gasped loudly before moaning and renewing his assault on Dean’s mouth.

Unfortunately the angle was just awkward enough to not be sustainable for a long time, Dean’s back was starting to hurt from twisting and he was getting a crick in his neck but he didn’t want to stop touching Cas. Throwing caution to the wind, he reluctantly parted his mouth from Cas’ long enough to gasp out questioningly, “Backseat?”

Cas didn’t even answer, he just nodded enthusiastically and clambered over the back of the front seat without preamble, giving Dean a lovely view of the other man’s jeans stretched enticingly over his firm ass as he went; once in the backseat, he arched an eyebrow questioningly and Dean scrambled to join him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there you are lovely people, part one of the drive in shenanigans. I feel a bit evil leaving you in the middle like that but I felt a change in point of view was in order but fear not, I won't leave you hanging for long; I already have a good idea for what's next, I just need to actually type it all up. So you'll be hearing from me soon :)


	10. Chapter 10

The sight of Dean scrambling wildly over the back of the front seat should have been amusing but amusement was the last thing on Castiel’s mind as he waited impatiently for Dean to join him. While Castiel had hoped there would at least be a bit of kissing and fooling around on their date to the drive in, he hadn’t been prepared for the heated groping that had just taken place in the front seat but he definitely wasn’t complaining. He needed to get his hands on Dean again and needed to feel Dean’s on his own body. 

As soon as the mechanic tumbled into the backseat and sat down in the space next to him, Castiel pounced; he grasped the front of Dean’s shirt, swiftly pulled himself up and over into Dean’s lap so he was straddling him and began to ravage the other man’s mouth again. They both moaned when Castiel shifted to settle more comfortably and ended up grinding their hips together; Dean’s hands reflexively shot out to cup the baker’s ass. Castiel bucked his hips forward involuntarily as Dean kneaded his ass through his jeans and was rewarded with a gasp so he did it again, deliberately moving slowly but firmly.

“You like that, don’t you Dean?” Castiel panted, smiling smugly at the other man’s responding whimper as he continued to undulate in Dean’s lap; heat was starting to kindle low in his belly. This was quickly moving from an old school make out in the back of a car to something steamier and neither of them seemed to mind. Castiel leaned down and nibbled on Dean’s ear. The other man shivered and returned the favor by latching onto Castiel’s neck, somehow finding that spot behind his ear that got Castiel hot and tingling and proceeded to nip and suck at the skin there causing him to cry out softly and the rhythm of his hips to stutter.

Dean ran his hands under the hem of his shirt right before he began to tug at it insistently, lips still firmly attached to the sensitive flesh of his neck, and the prospect of having the mechanic’s rough hands skimming his skin had Castiel eagerly helping. As his t-shirt was striped from him, goosebumps broke out on Castiel’s arms at the contrast of the cool night air and the burning heat of Dean’s hands on his back where they kneaded at the muscle. Feeling that things were a bit one sided, the baker shifted backward slightly and peeled Dean’s shirt off him so he could drink in the sight of the mechanic’s bare chest.

Working at the garage had helped keep Dean from getting flabby but wasn’t enough to make him into a musclebound hulk, there was a teeny bit of pudge around his belly that Castiel wanted very badly to nibble at for some reason. That, plus the desire to see how hot Dean would look stretched out on the leather bench seat, had Castiel maneuvering them so he was on his hands and knees while Dean was laid out on the seat below him.

There was a moment of stillness, Castiel looked down at Dean; the other man was flushed and breathing heavily, the bright green of his eyes almost overtaken by black of his pupils making him look almost drunk on lust. It was one of the most gorgeous things Castiel had ever seen.

Castiel leaned down to brush a surprisingly gentle kiss on Dean’s lips, cupping Dean’s lightly stubbled cheek before trailing a hand down that firm chest. Dean returned the kiss and wrapped his arms around Castiel’s bare torso, forcing the baker to lower himself down so they were laying flush together and lifted a hand up to tangle in Castiel’s ruffled hair.

“How far do you want to go?” Dean whispered into his ear after breaking their kiss; the brush of lips against the sensitive shell of his ear caused a pleasant shiver down the baker’s spine. 

“As far as you want,” Castiel muttered against Dean’s mouth. He trailed a hand down to toy with the waistband of the other man’s jeans, dipping his fingers underneath the edge slightly to brush Dean’s underwear. Dean put his hand on top of Castiel’s and slid their hands further down into his pants, indicating he was definitely fine with going further.

Dean drew his hand out of its current position on Castiel’s and timidly thumbed at the button on the baker’s jeans, looking up shyly, the question very obvious on his face; Castiel answered by unbuttoning Dean’s pants and slowly pulling down the zipper. The low sigh of relief that Dean let out as the most likely uncomfortable pressure was removed from his erection was music to Castiel’s ears.

Castiel chuckled. “I bet that feels better,” he said huskily, kissing at the bolt of Dean’s jaw as the man nodded slowly. He pressed Dean’s hand, which was still hovering at the still closed opening of his jeans, lightly against himself and looked up at Dean with an eyebrow raised expectantly.

Quickly catching on, Dean blushed and hurriedly fumbled with the button and zipper of Castiel’s pants and soon Castiel was sighing as he was freed from confinement.

Now that they were more comfortable, they went back to the long slow kisses from earlier, hips pressing up and down into one another’s almost imperceptibly as they just enjoyed a slightly more heated version of their intended classic make out session. It was slightly cramped in the backseat, considering they were both full grown men and neither of them was exactly scrawny, and the tiny logical part of Castiel was arguing that he had a perfectly good apartment they could go to but there was something insanely arousing about fooling around in a car like a couple of teenagers.

Soon the kisses started to get sloppier as their hips began to move with more purpose; the friction was maddening and sent spark after spark of pleasure to curl in Castiel’s gut. Dean shifted a leg over the edge of the seat to rest his foot on the floor and bent his other leg up so Castiel could settle between his legs before wrapping it around the baker’s waist and using it to draw him in closer. When Dean used the leverage from this move to rock his hips up sharply, a shocked gasp was involuntarily forced from Castiel; the other man chuckled and grinned smugly at this reaction while Castiel arched a brow speculatively.

It was going to be like that was it? Fine, Castiel could play that game.

Castiel’s first move was to drag Dean’s arms from around his back and up so they were above his head; he held them there with a firm grip with one hand, pinning them down against the leather seat as the other trailed down the other man’s side. The smirk was immediately erased from Dean’s face and Castiel heard a sharp intake of breath and saw, if it were even possible, even more heat flood those green eyes.

Interesting, Castiel thought to himself, note to self: Dean enjoys a little manhandling.

Dean appeared to be wise to what Castiel was trying to do and he fixed a determined look on his face, trying to seem unaffected despite the shiver that travelled visibly through his body as Castiel deliberately ground his hips down as he pinched one of Dean’s nipples. As soon as he saw this, the baker knew he’d found a hot spot and leaned his head down to latch onto the other one, tugging lightly on it with his teeth. 

He was rewarded with a gasp and Dean panting, “Cas!”

Laughing lowly, Castiel continued his ministrations, taking breaks from teasing Dean’s nipples only so he could nip at the skin of Dean’s neck or move his mouth up to swallow the almost too loud moans Dean was making. This strategy was extremely effective as soon the only words Dean could seem to muster were “Cas” and “Fuck” between desperate pants and gasps. Dean was straining slightly against Castiel’s hold but in a way that told the baker that he was actually enjoying it and not actually trying to break free. The idea that Dean liked to be held down only added more fuel to the fire growing Castiel’s groin.

Unfortunately the downside to his clever plan was that soon Castiel was having a hard time controlling himself; he felt like he was going to burst and wanted very badly to rut against Dean like an animal until they were both sweaty and satisfied but he didn’t want to give up on teasing the other man into a writhing mess since that sight was fast becoming one of his favorites. All too soon however, Castiel knew that the end was fast approaching for himself and, if he was reading the other man’s twitching hips as well as the clenching fists under his hand correctly, Dean was in the same boat; the mechanic looked like he was barely hanging on, hovering right next to the edge and looking like he just needed a slight push to tumble off and Castiel had just thing to do it.

Castiel unlatched his mouth from Dean’s and leaned over to pant in his ear, “Are you close Dean?” he said, his voice deepened by arousal. When the other man nodded frantically, Castiel moaned and sped his hips up while pressing them down harder and harder, grinding the bulge in his underwear against Dean’s; the fabric between them was practically soaked with precome, allowing their cock to slide against each other with ease. “Fuck yes, so am I; I want to see it Dean. I want to see how hot you look when you come. You look so damn good already, writhing beneath me. I bet seeing you come is going to set me right off. That’s it, move those hips, work for it. You’re almost there Dean, I can feel it. Come for me gorgeous.”

Dean gasped loudly at this and Castiel pulled back just in time to see those bright green eyes widen right before they slammed shut as Dean came, his face screwed up in pleasure and mouth open in a silent ‘o’; his hips stuttered underneath Castiel’s and he felt the warmth of Dean’s release soak through the fabric of his own underwear. The sight of Dean coming undone coupled with the tightening of Dean’s leg around his hips as he rode out his orgasm against him did throw Castiel over the edge and he came with a shout he muffled in Dean’s bare shoulder as wave after wave of pleasure washed over him; he rocked back and forth gently, working himself through the aftershocks before he became too sensitive and had to stop.

Unable to hold himself up, Castiel collapsed on top of Dean and they both laid there, trying to calm their erratic breathing. The sound of a completely different movie slowly filled the car as they were able to stop panting but Castiel wasn’t paying attention; he was too busy placing lazy kisses to the heated skin of Dean’s shoulder and neck while Dean rubbed his sweaty back in slow circles as they allowed their beating hearts to calm down..

The almost silence was strangely serene and wasn’t tense much to Castiel’s surprise; he’d thought that, once they had both came, things would get uncomfortable but excluding the rapidly cooling mess in his boxers, that turned out not to be the case. He was actually starting to get a bit drowsy when Dean shifted beneath him, indicating he wanted to get up. Castiel groaned mournfully at the imminent loss of his pillow and wrapped an arm around Dean’s neck to stop him from moving.

Dean chuckled but moved anyway, extracting himself from Castiel’s grip. “Don’t be so grumpy,” he said, sitting up to lean over the front seat. The baker’s mood was lightened by the view he had of Dean’s fantastic ass bent over the back of the leather seat. “I’m just getting something to clean us up with.”

Castiel had to grudgingly admit to himself it was a good reason to move, cringing at the feel of drying come in his underwear. With a triumphant noise, Dean removed his head from the glove box and brandished a pack of Kleenex; he handed a handful to Castiel and they cleaned themselves up as best as they could. It wasn’t exactly comfortable but it was way better than before. After they were marginally cleaned up, Castiel felt around the floor for their discarded shirts and they slipped them back on and still the expected awkwardness didn’t appear. 

Deciding that they were still too loose limbed and relaxed after their orgasms to want to attempt crawling back into the front seat, Castiel grabbed their now warm sodas and snacks from the front and they set up shop in the backseat. This time Castiel was tucked into the one corner of the car, their legs outstretched on the seat with Dean’s back pressed against his chest. Castiel wasn’t really watching the movie, some black and white film about a monster living in an asteroid hurtling toward Earth, since he was occupied with just enjoying the feeling of having Dean in his arms. 

Suddenly Dean started to laugh. Intrigued by this outburst, Castiel asked him what was so funny.

“Every time we’ve been together, we make completely normal situations into huge embarrassing moments but here we are, getting it on in the back seat of a crowded drive in, a situation that should logically end in disaster and nothing happens,” Dean explained, turning around to grin at Castiel. “I half expected to get caught and thrown out or us to sit here awkwardly for the rest of the date but here we are.” He laughed again as he settled back, laying his head on the baker’s chest. 

Castiel laughed a bit at this revelation too. It was a bit shocking that nothing had gone wrong considering how much could have actually gone wrong but maybe the universe had decided that he and Dean had had enough awkward moments.

 

A loud knocking on the window during the following movie followed by someone shining a bright light into the car, startling them both out of a slight doze, revealed how wrong they had been to thing the universe had decided to cut them a break.

“Hey Cassie!” a horribly familiar voice shouted, muffled by the closed window, caused Castiel to wince.

_Dear God no_ , he thought frantically, turning to look out the window to confirm his suspicions.

Dean groaned unhappily and pulled the blanket they had grabbed from the trunk during intermission to cover up with over his head to block out the light from what Castiel assumed was a phone. “Please tell me that isn’t your brother,” he whined pathetically. Castiel patted him soothingly on the back.

“If I did, that would be a lie,” Castiel said in a mock dramatic tone as Gabriel continued to smack the Impala’s window, not seeming to notice they were ignoring him.

“Lie to me Cas,” Dean pleaded, poking his head out of the blanket and craning his neck to look up at him with big green eyes at were squinting slightly due to the flashlight on Gabriel’s phone. 

Castiel chuckled at the display and shook his head. “Sorry Dean, lying is bad for relationships you know,” he replied as he reluctantly nudged Dean over so they could untangle themselves. “We better acknowledge him before his damages the window.” This got Dean moving in a hurry and soon Castiel was rolling down the window.

Gabriel stuck his head in and peered around, still shining them in the face with his phone. “I didn’t know you were coming here for your hot date Cassie,” his brother said loudly, Castiel tried to shield his eyes so he could see his sibling’s face. “Mom thought it would be fun to go to this movie festival so her, dad and me packed up some chairs in the car and here we are.”

The thought that his parents were lurking somewhere out in the shadowy parking lot of cars caused Castiel to freeze. What if they came by and spotted them? They would feel the need to stick their noses into his date and he just didn’t need that aggravation. The problem now was that not only were they here but they were here with Gabriel, who now knew where he and Dean were.

On the heels of that thought, another occurred; what if Gabriel guessed what he and Dean had been up to? Hell would have to freeze over before his brother would pass up an opportunity to tease him for getting frisky in a drive in movie like some teenager. Castiel surreptitiously checked out his and Dean’s appearances, thankfully they had cleaned up and looked presentable. Maybe if is eased Gabriel on his way, things would be fine.

Gabriel had moved on to pestering Dean, who was sitting there, still half wrapped in the blanket with his hair matted down in odd places and sticking up in others, with a lost looking expression his face. “So Deano,” his brother said nonchalantly, his quick gaze taking in Dean’s appearance as a speculative expression made it’s way across his features, “You decided to bring little Cassie here to the movies to lose his virginity. Getting busy in the backseat at a drive in is awful classy of you.”

“Gabriel!” Castiel barked frustratedly as Dean’s eyes went as wide a plates. “Dean and I are not ‘getting busy’ in the backseat, we’re _trying_ to watch the movies,” he continued, glaring at his brother’s grinning face, before adding indignantly, “And you know damn well I’m not a virgin.”

Rolling his eyes, Gabriel stuck a lollipop in his mouth. “Jeeze Cassie, calm your tits,” he said around the candy in his mouth, “I’m just kidding. Don’t get your lacey date panties in a bunch.”

There was a snort of laughter from Dean at this, much to Castiel’s chagrin but he should have expect this; Dean was always amused by Gabriel’s antics when Castiel told him about them during their nightly phone calls. Castiel should probably be happy that Dean wasn’t bothered by his brother interrupting them but considering the fact that the baker had been very happy and comfortable being snuggled up with Dean sprawled on top of him and was anxious to get back to that activity, he needed a way to get rid of his brother.

“Gabriel,” he said, not bothering to hide the annoyance in his voice. He leveled a pointed glare at his brother. “As you mentioned before, I am currently on a date, a date that does not include you talking me and my date’s ears off. So, unless you want me to put you back on early morning dish duty again at the shop, I suggest you leave.”

His brother immediately removed his head from the window. “Well fine then, I can tell when I’m not wanted,” he replied huffily as he turned to leave, “You two are boring anyway, at least with mother and father there’s hilarious commentary on the movies.”

Castiel breathed a sigh of relief as he watched his brother’s retreating form. He’d not only gotten rid of Gabriel without a fuss, but he’d done it without letting his brother get wind of what he and Dean had been doing. He and Dean settled back down the way they had been before Gabriel’s interruption and started watching the movie again.

Out of the blue his brother’s head popped in through the window right next to him, almost causing Castiel to smack him in the face in reflex. Gabriel turned to look at him and if Castiel’s eyes weren’t deceiving him, a smug smile was spreading across his features as he spoke.

“Oh yeah, and by the way Cassie, your shirt is on backwards and inside out. Have fun watching your movie you two,” Gabriel said at an extremely loud volume, putting special emphasis on ‘watching your movie’ before he dashed away through the cars, cackling as he went. Probably off to tell their parents what he had discovered.

Castiel groaned in frustration as Dean stiffened in his arms. _Just great_ , he thought to himself, _now things are going to get awkward and the night had been going perfectly_. But to his surprise, Dean just chuckled and snuggled back against Castiel’s chest.

“Looks like we’re tied at two for the awkward experiences thing now Cas,” he said, craning his neck to meet Castiel’s gaze, his eyes filled with mirth. “I wonder which of us will be the lucky bastard who breaks it.”

Relaxing now that he knew Dean wasn’t going to be mad at him and more than a little overjoyed at how well Dean handled not only being ambushed by his annoying sibling but having said annoying sibling loudly announcing that he knew they’d been fooling around, Castiel pressed a kiss to the top of Dean’s head and rubbed his hands over the other man’s arms. “I guess we’ll just have to see,” Castiel said contentedly with a soft smile as they finally got back to the movie.

Despite Dean’s prediction of embarrassment in their future, Castiel really couldn’t wait to see how dating Dean would turn out. So far the two dates he’d been on with the man were the best that he’d ever had, annoying brother and all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the second half of the drive in shenanigans as promised. I think it's a bit longer than my usual chapters but that's probably because Gabriel just decided to pop up there at the end. I hope you enjoyed it. :)
> 
> Oh! And I almost forgot to tell you were I got the idea for Gabriel's prank on little Cas. It's from an episode of The Office where Jim buys a huge spool of wire and watches as Dwight follows it out of the building and up a telephone pole.


	11. Chapter 11

Two weeks after his and Cas’ drive in date, Dean was still walking on air.

It seemed like everything was going his way for a change. The garage had finally slowed back down to a normal amount of customers so he didn’t have to haul ass when he worked anymore and since things were calmer, they were back to being able to leave for lunch without worrying about not getting behind work. This led to another happy change in Dean’s life as he started driving himself to work.

At first his dad was a bit crestfallen, he assumed that Dean was still sore about the matchmaking thing and didn’t want to ride with him anymore but Dean reassured him that he missed driving the Impala and that he was going to be meeting friends for lunch sometimes so it would be easier if he drove. This wasn’t exactly a lie, he was meeting someone for lunch, he may have fibbed about the exact nature of his relationship with said person.

Now that he drove to work every day, Dean had decided to make Hometown Bakery his new favorite lunch stop for obvious reasons, the main one being that he got to have lunch with a sexy blue eyed baker every day. The first few times that Dean had shown up at lunch time, Cas had been very busy in the kitchen and could only spare a few minutes for him, bringing out his order and sitting with Dean for as long as he could before he had to get back to work, stealing a kiss as he went. Dean had been okay with this, he knew that his (lover? boyfriend? They hadn’t really talked about labels yet)...Cas was a business owner and that kept him busy, but apparently this didn’t sit well with Cas because a few days after Dean’s first visit, he noticed that the baker mysteriously had nothing to do around noon so he could sit with him during his lunch hour.

When Dean mentioned the change, Cas brushed it off, saying that it was a coincidence but he still blushed when Dean playfully teased him about rearranging his schedule just so they could eat lunch together and play footsie. Dean was just as guilty as Cas when it came to being excited for lunchtime though; it was nice to have some more time to talk with Cas face to face and to get to know each other better.

By an unspoken rule, they avoided any in depth conversations during their lunches and stuck to random topics like movies, TV, books and other things but Dean was gearing up to break that rule as he got out of Baby after parking in her spot by the curb.

Today he was on a mission. A mission that wouldn’t have been needed if Sam knew how to keep his moose-sized mouth shut about things that didn’t concern him.

 

Last night the family had been sitting at the table eating supper when Sam suddenly interrupted Mary’s story about the bakery at the grocery store being out of pre-made pizza dough.

“Hey, speaking of bakeries,” Sam blurted out of nowhere while he stirred at his food, causing everyone to look at him, “I thought you said you weren’t actually interested in that Castiel guy, Dean.”

Dean had felt like all the air had been sucked out of the room as his dad, mom and brother all had turned to examine him with keen interest; it had felt like being x-rayed. He’d attempted to utilize the tried and true tactic of avoidance.

“What the hell are you talking about Sammy?” he’d said, taking a huge bite of pasta salad to buy time. He hadn’t liked the look either one of his parents were giving him; John had had a look somewhere between excitement and smugness while Mary looked so happy she might explode. This was not going to end well for him.

“Jess and I were walking downtown today and we walked past that cafe/bakery place and Jess swears she saw you sitting at a table with that guy from Bobby’s party and she said you looked pretty cozy,” Sam had said with a knowing smirk. Dean had glared daggers at his little brother from his side of the table.

Both of his parents had then turned to look at Dean questioningly; it had been obvious from their extended silences and twins looks of expectation that they were waiting for him to speak. 

_Shit, shit, shit_ , he’d thought to himself; he’d had no idea what to say. Dean had been hoping he would be able to keep what he and Cas had to themselves for a while longer. It’s not that he was ashamed or that he didn’t want his family to meet Cas; it was just nice to focus on them without the distraction of families because Dean knew that once his family knew, they were going to poke their noses into everything. That’s why he’d decided to wait to tell his family but since Sammy had let the cat out of the bag, it looked like he would have to fess up earlier than he’d planned. Dean had taken a fortifying breath and put down his fork.

“Yes, I’m going out with Cas,” Dean had said defeatedly, looking up at the ceiling. His dad had clapped him on the shoulder while saying that he knew that he and that Novak boy would get along well while his mom had immediately started to ask questions, how did it happen, how long have they been dating, has he met Cas’ family yet, etc. 

Dean had internally groaned in defeat but answered his mom’s questions dutifully, though with a few modifications for the sake of decency, to prevent humiliation on his part and because his family didn’t need to know all the details of how he and Cas got together and about their dates. By the end of the interrogation, all three of them had been smiling sappily at him; there had been a bit more conversation on the matter but then they had moved on, much to Dean’s relief. He’d just started to muse to himself at just how easily the forced reveal had gone when his mother had spoken.

“We’ll have to have him over this weekend for dinner, to meet the family.”

_Double shit!_

 

So all because of Sammy’s big mouth, Dean was now, for the first time since he’d started coming to Cas’ bakery for lunch, hesitating to open the door and wondering if maybe it might be time to try some sandwiches from the gas station down the road from the garage. 

_No, I am not chickening out_ , Dean reaffirmed himself as he shut his car door and walked over to the entrance to the bakery, _I am a grown ass man, I can invite Cas to dinner with my family._

Dean squared his shoulders and opened the door, hearing the now familiar jingle of the bell announcing his arrival. There was only one other patron in the place, a little old lady sitting at a small table with a book and a coffee, and the counter was unmanned but Dean heard a faint call of “just a minute” echo from the open door that he knew led to the kitchen. He walked up to the counter, a forced expression of ease plastered on his face though he suspected it fooled no one, and leaned against it. Soon there was a shuffle of sneakers and Gabriel’s head popped around the corner; he smirked mischievously.

“Oh, Cassie!” Gabriel called sweetly, “There’s a sweaty mechanic here to see you, I told you to stop ordering from that strip-o-gram catalog when you’re on the clock. It’s so unprofessional you know.”

And as quickly as he had appeared, Cas’ brother disappeared back into the kitchen, leaving Dean to stand at the counter as he face flushed slightly in embarrassment. This state was definitely not helped by the slightly muffled snort of laughter from the woman behind him; she had obviously thought Gabriel was funny, an opinion that Dean did not currently share. He just counted himself lucky that the shop was slow this afternoon. Gabe liked to come up with...colorful ways to declare Dean’s arrival to Cas when on the occasions that he was the one to saw him arrive for lunch though Dean supposed he should be used to the treatment by now.

The sound of a muffled argument floated out of the kitchen and Dean could pick out Cas’ gruff voice, loaded down with annoyance, battling it out with Gabriel’s unrepentantly amused one. After a few moments of silence following the discussion, during which Dean fiddled with a straw wrapper some previous customer hadn’t bothered to throw away, Cas emerged from the kitchen; Dean smiled at the sight of him.

Cas must have been working something just now as the other man was coated in flour. The baker had a dusting of white all over his clothes as well as generous smudges of it on his arms, neck and face; the man’s hair was a disaster too, looking way messier than usual and sticking up in odd places, and it too had a bunch of flour in it. To sum up, Cas looked like some sort of mad baker and the sight gave Dean a little pleasant warmth in his chest.

“Once again I apologize for Gabriel’s antics,” Cas said in a weary tone, his hands were patting his hair and clothes as he absently tried to bring his appearance in order but only succeeded in adding more flour-y hand prints everywhere, Dean smiled slightly but didn’t point this out. “I’m starting to wonder if I would be in violation of any employment laws if I bought some sort of muzzle for him.”

Dean laughed at that image as he walked over to take a seat at their usual table at the end of the counter while Cas popped back into the kitchen to grab their lunches which turned out to be turkey B.L.T.s with avocado, one of Dean’s newest favorites surprisingly. Normally Dean was a very basic guy when it came to his food: beef, potatoes and beer, no rabbit food for him. He usually left the weird veggies and things to Sammy the health nut but Cas was slowly changing his opinion on food. 

The food at Cas’ shop was what one would expect to find in a cafe, sandwiches, soups and every once and awhile he’ll make his own pasta for casseroles, but with a few twists that made them healthier. When Dean had asked why a baker of all people would be encouraging healthy eating since he sold baked goods, which weren’t exactly healthy, Cas had told him that he believed that being happy and healthy was all about balance so he attempted to balance out the sugary sweets he sold with lunch options that were healthy but still had a regular home cooked taste and feel to them. Dean had been skeptical of this claim at first but then he’d had one of Cas’ sandwiches at the baker’s insistence.

He’d been letting Cas choose his lunch every day since.

They dug into their meals, eating in relative silence since they were both pretty hungry but while Cas looked like he was relaxed and unworried, Dean’s mind was trying to decide when it would be a good time to make his move. He took large bites of his delicious sandwich to keep himself from saying anything stupid.

“Wow, you must’ve worked up quite the appetite today,” Cas said, jolting Dean out of his thoughts about how to tactfully ask the other man to meet his family. Dean looked up from his food, mouth full of sandwich, to see Cas looking at him; the baker’s eyes were bright with amusement and he was holding his own sandwich in his hands halfway between his plate and mouth, Dean’s near inhalation of his food must have caught his attention and distracted him from his own lunch.

Swallowing the large bite of food, Dean felt his face heat up slightly but he pushed down the growing feeling of embarrassment; Cas wasn’t trying to tease him, not maliciously anyway, just genuinely curious as to why Dean was clearly attempting to shove a whole sandwich down his throat in one go.

“Yeah, it was a pretty busy morning,” Dean fibbed. It wasn’t totally a lie, he was always starving when he got to the shop for lunch. He made the conscious decision to put down his sandwich and began picking at the pickle slices on his plate.

Cas chuckled, putting his lunch down as well. “Don’t be self conscious Dean. I take it as a compliment that you’re scarfing down my food, it means I did a good job. I was just worried since you seem a bit off today, did something happen at work?”

_Well Winchester_ , the mechanic thought as he mentally braced himself, _Time to put your big boy pants on, act like a man and ask Cas to meet your family._

This mental pep talk didn’t quash his worries that Cas would be freaked out by this request. What if it was too soon ask about meeting families? They’d only been seeing each other for a couple weeks, that seemed way too soon to be saying “hey, we’ve just started to really get a handle on each other, why not add some extra crazy by adding my wacky family into the mix?” 

Yeah, that didn’t exactly sound like a stellar plan.

But he didn't really have a choice. For one thing, his mom was so excited to meet Cas and Dean didn’t like to disappoint her and the other thing was his mom had already started putting together plans for a special dinner on Saturday so this thing was happening, whether Dean liked it or not.

“Nothing happened at work,” Dean quickly assured the other man, waving his hands in a placating gesture. “It’s just...well…last night…”

Cas sat up straight in his chair, looking concerned, “Did I say something that made you uncomfortable last night?” he asked worriedly, his hands had begun to tear at his napkin and he looked down, his cheeks getting slightly pink. “I’m usually not quite that...colorful in my texts, something about you must get me a little carried away.”

Oh. Dean, in his panic over how to ask Cas to a family dinner, had completely forgotten about last night. He blushed a bit too as he remembered. 

What had started was a quick night time check in with Cas had slowly but surely became a slightly steamy reminiscence of their activities at the drive in. Apparently Cas could be quite descriptive and detailed when it came to certain topics and it seemed there was a deliciously filthy mind hidden beneath that unruly nest of hair. Dean had enjoyed that conversation immensely and it had actually distracted him from the disaster that had been dinner.

“No!” Dean said, a bit too loudly considering how Cas jumped slightly in his chair and almost knocked over his glass of water. “That was...perfectly fine, freaking awesome in fact,” Cas blushed at this and smiled in relief and Dean continued, “I really liked that. It’s just that...I wanted to...well…”

And he was floundering again, perfect. Why was this so damn difficult?!

Cas was watching him babble with look that was part worry and part fascination. Dean could feel himself start to sweat as he tried desperately to find the words.

_Just fucking ask him already!!_ The clearly sane part of his mind screamed impatiently.

“My parents want to meet you!” Dean shouted abruptly, his voice sounding ten times louder in the soft quiet of the shop. There was an extremely noticeable silence after Dean’s outburst and he could practically feel the lady at the table behind him staring a hole in the back of his head.

The urge to crawl into a whole and die only grew as he noticed that Cas just staring at him, blue eyes wide and mouth slightly open.

_Oh God_ , Dean thought, _it **was** too soon to talk about meeting parents. I knew it, I just fucked big time. His lunch started to churn in his stomach. Not to mention I just yelled at him like some sort of moron. Why the hell can’t I talk to this guy like a normal human being. I should leave._

He was just preparing to run away like the coward he was when a noise broke him out of his thoughts.

Cas was laughing.

Bewildered, Dean looked over to see Cas smiling at him softly and chuckling; the other man’s eyes were crinkled in amusement.

“That’s all?” Cas said cheerfully, laughing occasionally. One of his hands reached out to pat Dean on the arm. “I thought there was something seriously wrong considering how weird you were acting. Of course I’ll meet your parents Dean, all you had to do was ask. I was actually going to ask if you would mind going to Sunday dinner at my parents’ house sometime soon, they want to meet you too.” 

So that was it? It really had been that easy?

Dean slouched in his chair, stewing in his humiliation. Of course he would make something as simple as a dinner invite out to be some monumental quest; it was par for the course by his brain’s standards. Cas was still grinning at him from across the table, obviously still getting a kick out of Dean’s nervousness and his strange outburst.

“I thought maybe it was too early to be talking about meeting parents,” Dean pouted, crossing his arms. It would be a lie to say that his sulk was entirely fake but he was feeling relief more than anything at the moment. “That maybe you would freak out and break up with me.”

Shaking his head, Cas leaned forward and patted Dean’s cheek affectionately. “I don’t think anyone has ever broken up with someone over getting invited to meet their family,” Cas said, “And I know for sure that I won’t be letting you go for quite sometime Dean Winchester, so stop getting yourself worked up whenever you want to ask me something alright?” 

Dean nodded sheepishly, enjoying the smooth skin of Cas’ palm on his cheek and leaning into the touch ever so slightly; he was starting to realize that, even though he and Cas hadn’t been dating long, the baker seemed like he really cared for him and he knew that he was definitely feeling a few things for Cas.

“Good, now it looks like it’s time for you to head back to work and for me to get back into the kitchen,” Cas continued. He stood up and grabbed Dean’s plate and, after disappearing with it behind the counter for a minute, handed him back the remaining half of his sandwich which was now wrapped up securely in some paper towels. “Make sure you eat the rest of your lunch and I’ll call you tonight.”

Cas waited until Dean had grabbed the rest of his lunch before pulling him by his shirtfront for a long kiss that may have curled Dean’s toes a little despite the fact of how chaste is was. He released Dean and, after a smile and a flirtatious wave, wandered off into the kitchen. Dean stood in the lobby, a little dazed with what had to be a stupid grin on his face; it wasn’t until a voice behind him spoke that he was jolted out of his reverie. He turned around to see that the speaker was the little old lady; she was smiling up at him, her book now resting on the table.

“That one is definitely a keeper young man,” she said knowingly, looking at him over her reading glasses, “You better keep a good hold on him.”

Dean chuckled as he turned to leave the shop, sandwich in hand and feeling the lightest he’d felt all day, “You know ma’am? You just might be right.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello lovely people! I am so so sorry for how long it took for me to get this to you; I had crazy writer's block and then summer hours were instated at work. This slight alteration of my daily schedule unfortunately means that my updates will probably be slower than usual (though hopefully not as slow as this one) since I have to be to work earlier in the morning which means I won't have as much time to write before I go to work (I seem to have a better time writing in the morning for some reason). I hope this fluffy chapter made up for the delay in posting. Thanks for reading :)


	12. Chapter 12

Between busy days at the bakery and long nightly conversations with Dean, Saturday afternoon arrived more rapidly than Castiel had originally anticipated. Dean had told him the his mother had decided to make the scheduled dinner into more of a cookout in order to foster a relaxed environment; this idea, while it was a very lovely gesture, had inadvertently added to Castiel’s nerves. He had no clue what he should wear to a dinner-almost-picnic meal to meet Dean’s parents.

_Did he go for very respectable and wear slacks, a dress shirt and tie? That might make him seem like a snob._  
_Should he wear jeans and a t-shirt so he didn’t look pretentious? No, he needed to make a good impression on Dean’s parents so no looking like a ruffian._  
_What if he wore the business casual he usually wore when he handled business matters at the bank? That idea had merit._

All of these thoughts swirled through his head as he put the final touches on a batch of sticky buns for Mrs. Thompson, his hands working independently from his busy mind to ice the last half of the batch of treats with peanut butter icing before boxing them up in a sturdy box stamped with the bakery logo. He carried the boxes out to the counter and called to let Mrs. Thompson know her order was ready for delivery before informing Hannah that he was leaving for the morning and that she could close up once the sticky buns were picked up. 

The dark haired woman nodded and smiled from where she was wiping down tables; the cafe was empty, as it usually was at this point during a regular Saturday. “Today’s the big dinner isn’t?” she said with a knowing smirk. “You should pick up some flowers to give to your new boyfriend’s mother, it’s a nice touch.”

Castiel sighed and rolled his eyes while grinning ruefully. Hannah had been giving him not so subtle hints about what he could do to make sure tonight went well, hints that had slowly devolved into blatant quasi-orders as the morning had gone by though the baker supposed he was getting off easy considering it was Hannah giving the advice. He shuddered at the thought of what Gabriel would have been suggesting if he had been scheduled to work today. 

“I’ll take that into consideration,” he said drily as he removed his messy apron and threw it over his shoulder, idly making note to toss it in the washing machine. “Have a good weekend Hannah.”

Hannah’s answering call of good luck followed him as he went down that hallway to the stairs that led to his apartment. It didn’t take him very long to shower and shave though taming his hair into a semblance of order did take a little longer but after some time, a few mutter curses and a couple grumbled curses, Castiel thought he looked pretty respectable. He grinned at himself in the mirror before going to stand in front of his open closet doors.

He stared at the contents, brows furrowed with one hand pressed to his mouth and contemplated his options. 

His first idea from earlier in the morning about dress clothes had been nixed after his glance out at the thermometer he kept just outside his kitchen window; it was about ninety degrees out so long sleeved shirts, slacks and jeans were definitely out. This left his options pretty limited since, during his worrying about what to wear, he hadn’t taken the warm weather into account which had been a bit silly considering Dean had told him that they were eating outside today. 

After much deliberation, Castiel settled on a pair of khaki shorts and a nice lightweight short sleeved polo; he figured it was a nice compromise between fancy and casual so he should be alright. It was as he was pulling on his nicest pair of sneakers when he noticed the time; it was almost three thirty. Dean had said his mother suggested that he come over to the house a bit early so everyone would have some time to chat before supper. He took one last look at himself in the mirror, mainly to silence the little worried voice in his head, and grabbed his leather jacket, keys and wallet before heading out.

Following the directions that he’d memorized from Dean turned out to be a cinch and he soon found himself outside the quaint two story home that Dean had described. It was a very lovely home but Castiel was too busy fighting the wave of nerves that suddenly washed over him to really take in any details of the house. He parked his bike behind Dean’s Impala, as instructed by the other man, and slowly removed his helmet, more from a desire to keep his hard won hairstyle intact than out of nerves surprisingly, not that his stomach wasn’t coiled into knots all the while.

It’s not like this was the first time he’d met a boyfriend’s family but for some reason it felt different this time. He really liked Dean, the other man was funny, interesting to be around, not to mention sexy as hell, and a part of him hoped this would turn into something long term so Castiel supposed it was natural to be worried that the whole meet the parents dinner might end up a disaster and Dean would never want to see him again but this logic didn’t make him feel any better.

He shook his head to dispel his negative thoughts and grabbed the flowers he had carefully stowed away in his backpack. Yes, he had made a quick pit stop at the florist a couple blocks down from his place to pick up a simple bouquet of summer daisies that looked nice and he figured would survive the trip in his bag. Castiel figured it couldn’t hurt to follow Hannah’s advice about Dean’s mother so, flowers in hand, he walked up to the front door.

Taking one last calming breath, he rang the doorbell.

There were a few moments of silence before Castiel could hear the faint sound of footsteps on the other side of the door which opened seconds later to reveal a beautiful blonde woman. She smiled at the sight of him and opened the door wider.

“Oh, you must be Castiel!” she exclaimed happily, opening the door and motioning for him to come inside before continuing in a slightly harried tone of voice. “Come in, come in. Don’t mind the mess, I’ve been trying to tidy up all morning but it just doesn’t seem to get any better.

Castiel entered the front door which led to a small mud room with an adjoining hallway that he assumed led to the rest of the house; the room was spotless despite Dean’s mother’s worries, he smiled at her fussing which reminded him a bit of his own mother. “Your home is very lovely, Mrs. Winchester,” he said soothingly as he closed the door to keep the cool of the air conditioning from escaping outside. “And I’m sure the rest of your house is as well.”

“Please, call me Mary,” Mrs. Winchester immediately replied with a laugh, “Being called Mrs. Winchester makes me feel old.”

She encouraged him to take off his sneakers, explaining that since it was so hot she thought maybe everyone would visit inside for a bit until it was time for dinner. Castiel dutifully kicked off his shoes and placed them on the mat next to the floor. It was then that Mary noticed the flowers in his hand.

“Are those for Dean?” she asked, pointing to the flowers, “I’ll put them in some water for him so they don’t wilt.” She reached out to take the flowers and Castiel laughed at the honest mistake.

He held them out for her to take. “Actually they are for you, Mrs. Winchester, I mean Mary,” Castiel replied, stumbling over his words in his slight embarrassment, suddenly feeling a bit awkward about the flowers despite Hannah’s assurance that it was a nice gesture. “A thank you for welcoming me into your home.”

Mary smiled widely as she took the flowers, running a hand over the slightly ruffled petals. “How sweet of you. I’ll just go pop these in a vase and I’ll show you where the living room is.” She motioned for him to follow her down the hallway. “Dean is up taking a shower, he was helping me set up some things in the backyard and got a bit dirty but he should be out in a little while. John and Sam are watching TV in the living room, I’m sure they can’t wait to meet you,” she said over her shoulder as they walked down hall. Castiel tried to fully pay attention as Mary motioned him towards the living room and announced to the room’s occupants that their company was here before continuing on to what he assumed was the kitchen, he really did but his mind was currently hung up on one little detail.

Dean was upstairs in the shower. Dean was upstairs naked in the shower. Right at this moment.

_No! We are not doing this,_ Castiel reprimanded himself, _I am in Dean’s house with his parents and brother for pete’s sake, I will not be thinking about **that**._

And by _that_ , Castiel meant how his mind immediately flashed to an image of Dean, naked and wet, in the shower and just how much he would give to see that sight in person or hell, to even join Dean in his there. He mentally slapped himself, trying to force the searing image of Dean lathering himself up in the shower out of his mind; considering he just met Dean’s mother and was about to be stuck sitting in a room with Dean’s father and brother, it was in his best interest to tame his libido. Nothing good could come of fantasizing about Dean while attending his first meeting with the other man’s family but it was difficult to keep his mind out of the gutter.

Ever since the date at the drive in, Castiel had noticed that there had been a new tension between him and Dean, a decidedly sexual tension. He knew it wasn’t just him but now was definitely not the time to be indulging his dirty mind.

Castiel paused outside the entrance to the living room, the sounds of a baseball game drifted out to meet him; he was just about to knock on the door frame to announce his presence when a large man waved at him from the sofa.

“Come on in, Castiel,” the man, John if he wasn’t mistaken, said. A tall young man sitting in an arm chair opposite the couch, Sam obviously, also waved in greeting. “Have a seat, we’re watching the game.”

Not entirely sure of himself, Castiel entered the room and walked towards the couch. Dean’s father stood up and held out his hand, a pleasant smile on his face. “I’ve heard a lot about you Castiel,” Mr. Winchester said as he firmly shook the baker’s hand in his strong grip. “Your dad’s always saying how well your store is doing and Dean says your food puts most restaurants to shame.”

Castiel flushed ever so slightly at the praise and rubbed the back of his neck once Mr. Winchester released it. “Oh I wouldn’t say that, Mr. Winchester,” Castiel replied, “My food is good but it’s nothing fantastic, simple food from a simple shop.”

“Now I’m sure Mary has already told you to drop the Mrs. Winchester nonsense and the same goes for me,” Mr. Winchester answered, sitting back down on the sofa and indicating the space next to him, “Just call me John. Now sit down and let’s see if these guys can’t pull a win out of this mess.”

So, following John’s instructions, Castiel sat on the couch and they all watched the game. While John was ranting at the TV about what he perceived as a bad play, Sam reintroduced himself since they had chatted a bit at the infamous party and the next several minutes were spent discussing the game. Castiel was shocked at how easy it felt to be sitting there talking to Dean’s family and it went a long way to easing his nerves about the supper portion of the evening; he was witnessing a heated debate between John and Sam about whether the umpire was making decent calls when Dean came loping into the living room.

The other man was wearing a t-shirt and shorts, his hair still damp from his shower; Dean stopped short as he noticed Castiel’s presence on the couch and a large smile spread across his face. He padded barefoot across the carpet to sit on the open seat next to Castiel.

Much to Castiel’s surprise, Dean brushed a quick kiss on his cheek as he sat down; the baker flushed slightly at the display of affection, not because he was against public displays that were within reason, but because Dean’s father and brother were right there in the room with them. 

“Hey Cas, I see you found the place alright,” Dean said, settling closer to Castiel on the couch and sliding his hand down to intertwine with the baker’s. John and Sam seemed to be too engrossed in their debate to notice the two of them which helped Castiel relax and enjoy being close to the other man. “These two haven’t been giving you a hard time have they?”

Castiel smiled and shook his head. “Not at all, we’ve been watching the game,” he said, nodding towards the TV, “But I think your father and brother are much more invested in it than I am.”

“Nah, they just love to argue with each other,” the other man replied with a chuckle, “The subject never really matters.”

“Oh, and you never argue?” John asked as he turned towards them, having obviously heard the comment about himself and Sam, and soon all three Winchesters were in a playful argument about who argued the most, much to Castiel’s amusement. The debate was actually starting to get a bit serious when Mary entered the living room; she took in the sight of the men bickering back and forth and rolled her eyes.

She came across the room and touched Castiel on the shoulder to get his attention, her entrance into the room going unnoticed by the others. “This might take a while,” she informed him, eyes twinkling with amusement as she glanced over at her husband and her sons, “How about you join me in the kitchen while they bicker themselves out?”

Castiel laughed quietly and nodded in acceptance before following Dean’s mother out of the living room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello lovely people :) Once again, sorry about the longer wait for an update; I try to scribble down a few things whenever I get the chance but sadly there just aren't enough hours in the day, which is a bit ironic since it's summer and the days are longer, haha. This chapter seems a bit off to me but I think it will smooth out once I get the next one out because I'll be doing another Cas POV chapter instead of flipping back to Dean like I usually do. Maybe if I'm lucky this weekend will be calmer than the last few and I'll have some time to sit down and write but I guess we'll just have to see. Oh and as always, thanks for taking the time to read. :)


	13. Chapter 13

After spending time with Mary in the kitchen, Castiel had learned that Dean’s mother was an extremely delightful and highly intelligent woman. 

When they had first entered the tidy kitchen, Dean’s mother had declared she was going to start preparing things for dinner and had then attempted to seat Castiel at the kitchen island; the baker steadfastly refused, insisting that he help. It would have been extremely rude to just sit like a bump on a log while Mary put the meal together and besides, he reasoned with the protesting mother, he enjoyed cooking so it wasn’t really work to him. At first Mary resisted, claiming that Castiel was a guest, but he eventually won her over and she allowed him to help; she gave him one of her spare aprons to wear, a light blue one with a floral pattern, which the baker put on without hesitation. 

They worked side by side, throwing together various sides, getting the burgers ready for the grill and chatting. The bulk of the conversation was concentrated on cooking techniques; Mary was thrilled to learn about Castiel’s secret for preventing scorching on the bottom of her rolls, but Castiel had the distinct feeling he was being skillfully interrogated. Her questions seemed innocent but the baker was able to read through the lines

What made him decide to open a bakery considering how big an undertaking that would be? _Is he impulsive or does he consider all the consequences before getting serious about something?_  
Running his own business was obviously hard work, how did he manage to balance work with his personal life? _Is he going to have time to properly dote on her son?_  
Dean had told her that he drives a motorcycle, how long have you been riding? _Was her son going to be safe with him?_

Castiel answered all her questions dutifully. He told her how he had always loved to cook and bake and how, after he’d graduated high school, he’d gotten jobs at various restaurants, diners and bakeries so that he could learn about the business; after a couple years of learning the ropes and saving money, he had been able to start his own bakery. The baker admitted that the bakery kept him busy but he did tell her that things had been a bit easier now that Gabriel was working for with him so his amount of free time had gone up significantly and he planned to use that time to get to know Dean better. As for his motorcycle, Castiel informed her that he’d been around motorcycles since high school, his friend Meg’s family was very into bikes and had taught him how to ride, and he always played things safe when it came to his bike since he’d rather not end up a smear on the sidewalk because he did something stupid.

Mary seemed to find these answers acceptable and, after putting the bowl of fruit salad they had been working on into the fridge, placed a hand lightly on his shoulder and smiled softly.

“You seem like a lovely young man Castiel,” she said, her eyes were bright with sincerity and this put Castiel at ease. “I can see why my son likes you so much.”

The baker returned her smile with one of his own. “Thank you Mary,” he replied, wiping down the counter with a damp rag to clean up the fruit juices, “I’ve really enjoyed getting to know Dean over the past couple weeks; he’s interesting and so much fun to be around. I hope we can take this thing somewhere and that I don’t mess this up.”

Mary laughed lightly, “Don’t you worry. I have a feeling that Dean feels the same way and, since you’re such a nice boy, I’ll let you in on a little secret,” she said, leaning in to whisper into his ear conspiratorily. “My Dean has a soft spot for anyone who can make a good pie, and,” she continued as she stood back to look at Castiel with a playful smirk that was strangely reminiscent of Dean’s, “It just might be possible that I have the ingredients for an apple pie this afternoon.”

Castiel grinned as he received Mary’s hint loud and clear; he reached for one of the mixing bowls he’d washed earlier and set it on the table. 

“You know Mary,” he said, “I think tonight’s dinner would benefit from a dessert, don’t you?”

She chuckled as she nodded and walked over to the cupboard to pull out a bag of apples. “I think you may be right Castiel.”

 

Twenty minutes later, Castiel was sliding his creation into the oven when he heard footsteps coming down the hall followed by voices.

“That will be the boys,” Mary said knowingly, reaching out to take the baker’s dirty apron, “They must have finally realized we disappeared and decided whatever they were arguing about wasn’t that important.”

Sure enough, the words were no sooner out of her mouth then Dean, Sam and John rounded the corner, filing into the kitchen to stand around the table. John announced that he was going to go and start the grill so it could warm up and suggested that, now that it was shadier in the backyard, everyone go outside. Mary agreed, saying that all the preparations for dinner were done so all that really needed done was cooking the burgers so they all trooped outside. As Castiel walked through the doors to the patio, Dean snagged him by the hand and pulled him over to the picnic table so they could sit. 

“I see Mom put you to work in the kitchen already,” he said, his voice filled with amusement, as they sat down; Castiel sat facing the table but Dean elected to straddle the bench, an action that did nothing to help the slightly dirty thoughts lurking in the back of the baker’s mind. “Hopefully that doesn’t mean you won’t come back again.”

There was a note of actual worry in Dean’s voice though the other man tried to act nonchalant. Castiel grinned and shook his head. “I really don’t mind Dean,” he reassured him, “I’m not sure if you noticed but I may enjoy cooking just a little bit.”

The last remaining traces of tension in Dean’s shoulders melted away at Castiel’s response and he changed the subject to other things, such as asking how Castiel’s morning at the shop had gone. They fell into their usual easy rhythm of conversation and soon Mary was calling for Dean and Sam to help set the picnic table; Castiel was forbidden to help since he had already helped make dinner so he wandered over to the grill to talk to John.

He was surprisingly at ease around Dean’s father, most likely due to the fact they had talked before on the occasions that Castiel had visited his own father at the shop and it seemed like John didn’t feel the need to interrogate him so they discussed the finer points of grilling a good cheeseburger. 

Soon the food was done and they all sat down to dinner. The everything was delicious but he hadn’t expected anything less from Dean’s mother after observing how skilled she was in the kitchen and he made sure to let her know; the conversation was pleasant and, Castiel was pleased to notice, not focused entirely on his and Dean’s relationship. He did have to cover the basics such as how he started the bakery again for John and Sam but other than that was really the only time they were focused on him.

Once the time for dessert rolled around, Castiel was very pleased at Dean’s reaction to his pie. The other man’s face lit up as he saw his mother bringing out the freshly baked pastry but that was nothing compared to the look of surprise when Mary announced that Castiel had baked it. 

“Polite, has a sense of humor and bakes a damn good pie, he’s definitely a keeper Dean,” John said knowingly as they ate their pie. 

Both Dean and Castiel blushed at this; Castiel face flushing due to the compliments being given him and he suspected Dean’s pinked cheeks were due to his father’s blunt statement of approval not that the baker minded in the least. 

 

After the sun went down, Mary had the boys start a fire in the fire ring in the backyard and everyone sat around it for awhile, talking, roasting marshmallows and in general having a great time. Castiel felt like it wouldn’t be too far off the mark to say that this afternoon and evening was the best experience he ever had meeting someone’s family. 

The initial meeting, which he had been worried would be stilted and uncomfortable, had gone extremely well as did his time alone with Dean’s mother and then dinner had been relaxed and jovial; John had asked a few questions, almost the same questions as his wife oddly enough, but it hadn’t been the interrogation he’d been worried it might be. And now he was sitting next to Dean on a wooden bench next to fire, laughing at John’s story about how Sam and Dean had tried to fly by dressing as superheroes and jumping off the shed roof which resulted in the youngest boy fracturing his arm.

“We had capes, it should have worked,” Sam argued playfully, as he pulled his marshmallow stick out of the fire. John and Mary, who were sitting over on one of the other benches, just shook their heads and smiled. 

Dean nudged Castiel in the side and leaned over to whisper in his ear, “I would like to point out that it wasn’t my fault that Sam couldn’t stick the landing, I did just fine.”

Castiel chuckled and nudged him back; this led to a brief scuffle where he and Dean grappled playfully at least until they almost fell off the bench. It was then that the baker noticed that it was surprisingly quiet and how close he and Dean had gotten during their antics; Castiel blushed and removed his hand from Dean’s back before putting a respectful distance between them. The silence stretched on for a few minutes before John cleared his throat politely.

“Well, I think it’s time that I headed inside, there’s another ball game on that’s got my name on it,” John said, standing up and grabbing his drink off of the ground. Mary stood up as well and gathered up the bag from the marshmallows and the roasting sticks.

“I think I’ll head in too, I’m feeling a bit sleepy,” Mary said before looking pointedly at Sam who had yet to move, “Didn’t you say that Jess was going to call you tonight after she got home from work, Sam?”

Sam seemed to get the hint and got up from his bench, muttering in agreement. The three of them wished Dean and Castiel goodnight and soon it was just the two of them.

“So,” Dean said with tone of amusement tinged with embarrassment, “That totally wasn’t an obvious attempt to give us some time alone.” Castiel laughed.

“What are you talking about?,” the baker asked in mock surprise, “They were being extremely discrete, I had no idea that they were trying to leave us alone.” Dean chuckled and slid sideways to eliminate the space between them, pressing his thigh against Castiel’s.

Castiel wrapped his arm around Dean’s waist and pulled the other man closer so he could press them tighter together; it was starting to get cooler out now that it was dark and he appreciated the warmth he gained from Dean’s presence plus there was the added bonus of being able to rest his head on the other man’s shoulder and breathe in Dean’s spicy aftershave. Neither of them said anything for awhile, the crackling of the fire filled the air. It was practically picture perfect.

After a few minutes, Dean slid his hand over to rest on Castiel’s thigh and began to lightly rub the muscle. The baker lifted his head off of its resting place on Dean’s shoulder and raised a questioning eyebrow, wondering where the other man was going with this. Dean only grinned mischievously and turned his head so he could kiss him on the mouth, gently plying Castiel’s mouth open so he could deepen the kiss. Their mouths moved together languidly for a few minutes before Dean broke the kiss and turned away to look at the fire, acting like he hadn’t just gotten Castiel’s pulse pounding like he’d run three miles but the slight smirk on his lips gave him away. Castiel was starting to suspect Dean was a bit of a tease.

Rolling his eyes and shaking his head at the other man, Castiel sat upright and tugged on the fabric of Dean’s t-shirt until he was forced to look at him then, after flashing a smirk of his own, leaned into capture Dean’s mouth with his; the other man’s mouth tasted like the marshmallows he’d been eating. It was a fairly chaste kiss, mainly due to their current location, and even though the baker’s hands were twitching with the urge to run them all over the other man’s body, he contented himself with cupping Dean’s cheek and resting his other hand on Dean’s lower back. Dean seemed to be on board with Castiel’s plans for an easy PG rated makeout since instead of pushing things further, he returned the slow leisurely kisses; one of his hands caressed the baker’s bicep, the warmth from his skin seemed especially hot on Castiel’s chilled skin, while the other laid comfortingly on his thigh at a safe distance.

How long they sat there, mouths moving in an easy rhythm and enjoying being near each other, Castiel couldn’t say but he would admit that this was just the cherry on top of an amazing day. He’d not only made a good impression on Dean’s family and seemed to have passed the various tests that had been tossed his way, he actually had the feeling that the other man’s family really liked him which, considering how important family was to Dean, was a very good sign that this just might turn into something.

Things were beginning to get slightly more heated, Dean’s hand was starting to creep up his thigh and Castiel’s fingers were getting dangerously close to the hem of Dean’s shirt, so the baker pulled away despite the other man’s whine of protest. Castiel chuckled at the pout on Dean’s face and gave him one last brief kiss before leaning back.

“I had a really good time today,” he said, absently smoothing the almost nonexistent wrinkles on the t-shirt beneath his hands. “Your family is so nice and they’re a lot of fun to be around. I hope they liked me.”

Dean smiled. “They definitely liked you Cas. If they hadn’t, they would have hung out down here by the fire until you left instead of giving us a bit of time for ourselves plus I know for a fact that Dad is rooting for us so he can take the credit for introducing me to my new boyfriend.”

Castiel’s smile got even bigger as he processed the last few words of Dean’s response. Neither of them had actually put a label on what they were quite yet despite the fact they both knew what they were to each other. It made his chest swell with warmth to hear Dean finally say it but he couldn’t resist teasing a teeny bit. 

“Oh, I’m your boyfriend now?” he said, dragging out the word boyfriend playfully. “Does that we’re officially going steady now hotstuff?” He tilted his head to the side and fluttered his lashes flirtatiously much to Dean’s amusement; the other man laughed and rolled his eyes but nodded.

“Of course we are honey britches,” Dean replied in the same tone before pecking him on the cheek. They both laughed at their silly nicknames before they fell into a comfortable silence again; they had resumed their original position, Castiel tucked into Dean’s side with his head on his boyfriend’s shoulder, Dean’s cheek resting on the top of Castiel’s head and for a long while they just sat there staring as the fire slowly burnt down to smoldering embers.

All too soon it was time to say good night. Dean pulled a protesting Castiel up off the bench and walked him to his bike, their fingers tangled together lightly as they slowly walked around to the front of the house. The Winchester’s street was silent and dark with the exception of a few porch lights that spotting the street here and there but that was not really surprising considering how late it was. 

They may have stolen a few more kisses, these ones containing slightly more heat than the previous ones, before Dean wished him good night and went inside. Castiel seated himself on his bike and sighed happily as he put on his helmet and started his bike.

Tonight had been one of the most perfect nights of his life and it definitely wasn’t going to be the last.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy moley this chapter was fighting me like crazy. I'd already had the part about Cas and Mary in the kitchen and the cutesy stuff by the fire already planned for a long time but it was horrible trying to find a way to connect the two so I apologize for the roughness of the chapter. I also apologize for any typos, since it took me so long to get this around, I may have rushed the proofreading process so I could get it up but I'll give it another sweep later today to fix anything that's amiss. So to all of you who are still here, thanks for reading :)


	14. Chapter 14

“If I were to suggest you join me for an impromptu picnic with a side of swimming down at the river, how would you react?” Cas’ voice rumbled in Dean’s ear after he picked up his phone.

Dean, who had been lounging in bed watching TV, when his phone started ringing, sat up with a grin on his face. “I suppose I would say ‘sign me up’, you know, hypothetically,” he responded with a mock serious tone that couldn’t quite cover his eagerness. He rolled out of bed, phone still pressed to his ear, and started digging through the pile of clothes on the floor for his swim trunks.

“And how would you react if I said I figured you would say that and I am currently outside your house,” Cas continued, Dean could picture the smug grin on his boyfriend’s face that was indicated by the other man’s voice and chuckled.

“I suppose I would just have to come down there and let you whisk me away like the dashing bastard that you are,” Dean replied as he uncovered his swimsuit with a barely audible sound of triumph. His mission accomplished, he padded over to the window and peeked out of his curtains to see Cas, still on the phone, leaning casually against his bike. Dean opened his window and popped his head out. “Well, well, well, don’t you make a pretty picture?”

Castiel looked up and, while Dean couldn’t be a hundred percent positive since he was so far away, grinned before telling Dean to get his ass downstairs. Smiling, Dean grabbed his trunks, shoes and wallet and bounded down the stairs; he let his dad know that he was going out as he passed the living room to which the only response was the usual request for him to be careful and left the house.

“That was quick,” Cas said as Dean walked over to him. He pushed himself gracefully off of his bike so he could press a quick kiss to Dean’s mouth. “Ready to go?”

“Yeah, let’s get this stuff in the Impala and we’ll be ready to go,” Dean said, indicating the backpack Cas has strapped down on the back of his bike that he assumed held their lunches and Cas’ swim trunks and towel. He made to reach for the bike when Cas’ hand stopped him.

“Actually,” his boyfriend said hesitantly, “I was thinking, since it’s so nice out today, we could take my bike.” It was then that Dean noticed Cas was holding a helmet but his boyfriend’s helmet was hanging from the handlebar as per usual.

Oh, well.

It wasn’t like Dean had never been on a bike before, he’d ridden a few albeit at a slow speed and been a passenger a few times but only for short distances, but he wasn’t that confident about his ability to ride a bike. There was this small fear in the back of his mind that he’d lose his grip and fall off. He’d figured this would happen eventually, Cas wanting him to ride on his bike with him, but he had hoped it would be a while; apparently he was wrong.

Dean noticed Cas was looking at him oddly and realized he had been standing there for how long, mouth agape as he tried to gather his thoughts. Not wanting to sound like a scaredy cat, Dean pushed down the slight anxiety that was trying to get a foothold inside him and sent Cas what he hoped was a nonchalant grin.

“Yeah sure, that sounds like a good idea,” he said as confidently as he could manage. Cas smiled brightly and held out the helmet he was currently holding. Dean took it hesitantly and handed Cas his trunks which the other man stashed away in the backpack after pulling out a canvas jacket; he unstrapped it from the back of the bike and handed it to Dean.

“I usually strap it to the backseat but since you sort of need that, you’ll have to carry this,” Cas explained as he handed Dean the bag, “Don’t worry, it’s pretty light now that this is out.” He handed the jacket to Dean. “You’ll probably want to wear this, being hit by bugs at high speed can get old really fast.”

Trusting Cas’ judgement, Dean pulled on the light jacket followed by the backpack while Cas settled himself down his bike and reached for his helmet. Dean swallowed down the slight nerves that were nagging him and moved the spare helmet from the seat behind Cas so he could swing a leg over and sit; he gripped the helmet tightly for a second before slipping it on. Through the layers of the helmet, Dean heard Cas’ muffled voice ask if he was ready and he responded by sticking his arm out and showing him a thumbs up. 

The bike started up with a grumbling roar which caused Dean to press himself closer to Cas’ back which had nothing to do with him being a bit startled; no, he was just getting a better grip around Cas was all. Dean’s minor case of nervousness returned as Cas pulled the bike away from the curb and they drove down the street.

After a few minutes of riding, Dean began to relax a bit. He’d been stupid for being a little freaked out, he decided as they made they’re way through town, it wasn’t like this was his first time on a bike and it was obvious Cas was a very skilled rider; he had nothing to worry about so he should just sit back and enjoy the ride. This new found ease lasted until they went around a sharp-ish corner and the muscles in Dean’s thighs and arms tightened reflexively around Cas which brought his attention to his current position.

 _No! Bad brain!_ Dean thought furiously to himself as he suddenly realized how tightly he was pressed up against Cas and just what was pressing back against his groin. _We are not going to think about that, nothing good will come from thinking about that._

He successfully kept his mind occupied for the next ten minutes or so by observing the scenery as it flashed by, there was more to see now that they were getting close to the river, but it was getting increasingly difficult to stop his mind from making forays into the gutter. Dean started noticing the shift of Cas’ muscles under his hands as the other man navigated the bike over the road and began musing on how easy it would be to slip his hands under his boyfriend’s t-shirt so he could get a closer feel so to speak. This train of thought inevitably ended with him pondering just what other activities would allow the both of them to be pressed up against each other like this with decidedly less barriers between them; Dean felt a very familiar tingling sensation start below his belt. This would not end well in his favor, he needed to think non-dirty thoughts as quickly as possible, the more off putting the better.

“Walking in on Mom and Dad making out on the couch when I was sixteen, that old creepy dude back on campus who hits on me, Cas’ brother talking about his one night stands…” Dean muttered to himself in desperation. He was distantly aware that Cas was pulling into the park but they had to drive over a less than well maintained gravel parking lot and all the jostling caused by this was very much not helping Dean’s situation. He ramped up his muttered efforts to discourage his libido. Cas turned off his bike and started to remove his helmet. Unfortunately Dean was so focused on his task that he forgot that he was in fact talking to himself out loud.

“Bobby wearing nothing but a trucker hat and a banana hammock!” Dean half shouted as he pulled off his helmet; he froze when his brain played back what he’d just blurted out. In front of him, Cas’ shoulders stiffened and he turned his head to look at Dean with a look of puzzlement.

Well this was horribly awful.

Dean was off Cas’ bike in a flash, holding the helmet in front of him like a shield. Avoiding the other man’s eyes, he looked down at his shoes as he searched for a way to explain his outburst that didn’t sound bizarre but was coming up with bupkis. 

“Um, any chance we can just pretend that you didn’t hear me say that,” Dean asked sheepishly. He could feel his cheeks heating up which only made him feel worse. Cas was looking at him curiously with an eyebrow raised and a small smirk; his boyfriend shook his head.

“Unfortunately I’m going to have to say no Dean,” Cas said, his voice filled with amusement, “I’m very curious to know why you would shout about your boss wearing a very revealing outfit in my ear.”

Resigning himself to humiliation, Dean rubbed the back of his neck and explained his...problem while riding the bike and his solution to said problem, which had blown up in his face. By the time he was done explaining he could tell his own face was probably as red a fire engine but the interesting this was the fact that Cas’ face was a matching shade. Dean was just about to ask what was wrong when the other man burst out laughing.

A minute or two passed as Cas roared with laughter and eventually the baker ended up bent over hugging his stomach. This actually was very helpful because it allowed Dean to transition to mortified to slightly disgruntled. 

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up big guy,” Dean pouted, his arms crossed, “I’m sure in all your time riding motorcycles you’ve never had this little issue before.”

Cas finally managed to gain control over himself and, after hanging his helmet on one of the handlebars, he took the few steps over to stand in front of Dean; he reached out to take the other helmet and place it on the seat before placing his hands on Dean’s hip and trying to catch his gaze. Being the pain in the ass he was sometimes, Dean looked away from him; he wasn’t really angry but he felt like making Cas work for it for a minute or two.

“While I can say that I’ve never shouted out about half-naked older acquaintances, I must admit I am indeed familiar with the issue of how...distracting it can be being so close while riding a bike,” Cas said soothingly. He leaned forward and placed a quick kiss just under Dean’s ear before whispering, “But would it make you feel better to know that I may have been experiencing the same little problem? Having you pressed up against my back with your arms around me did have a dirty idea or two trying to distract me too.”

Dean shuddered as he kissed the same spot again. The bastard knew that was one of his hotspots dammit; though to be honest, Dean knew he wouldn’t be able to stay upset with the other man anyway. So sighing, he uncrossed his arms and placed them on Cas’ hips; Cas grinned at him, knowing that he’d won.

“Okay, okay, I’m not grumpy anymore. You can stop laying on the charm, save some of that for later,” Dean said, rolling his eyes as Cas chuckled. “I believe was was lured out of my cozy room with the promise of a picnic and swimming?”

“I do believe that was the arrangement,” Cas said in mock seriousness, “Let’s go grab a spot and have some lunch before we swim.”

 

Lunch was delicious of course; Cas had packed several of Dean’s favorite sandwiches as well as a heart stoppingly scrumptious pie which also just happened to be pecan, one of Dean’s favorites. They ate on a blanket Cas had stashed in his backpack that they spread under a tree in the ample shade and despite the gorgeous weather, they were the only ones at this particular spot, not that either of them minded in the slightest. 

They laid side by side in the shade talking about nothing until their stomachs settled enough for swimming before using the bathrooms provided by the park to change. Dean came out of the little bathroom to find Cas sitting on their blanket applying sunscreen.

“Seriously, you’re going to wear sunscreen?” Dean asked. He plopped down next to his boyfriend while Cas leveled an earnest look at him while he slathered sunscreen up and down one arm.

“Skin cancer is no joke Dean,” Cas replied matter of factly as he turned towards Dean, “I always wear it when I’m going to be outside for a good amount of time, especially when I’m around water. Oh, do you mind getting my back for me?” The little sneak tried to keep a straight face as he handed him the bottle but Dean knew that Cas knew exactly what he was doing.

Cas turned around to present Dean with a perfect view of that muscled back and for a moment, he forgot what exactly he was supposed to be doing with the blue bottle in his hand. He was startled out of his reverie by Cas clearing his throat pointedly and he quickly squirted some of the sunscreen in his hand and began to apply it to the tanned skin in front of him. It took every fiber of his being not to lean forward to kiss and nibble the back of the other man’s neck. Even with the other man facing away from him, Dean could tell Cas was preening as he attempted to act unaffected by the fact he was getting to rub his hands all over his boyfriend. 

The sunscreen smelled like coconut and Dean cursed internally knowing that he would never be able to smell coconut again without getting turned on. He would also blame Cas and his wiles for why, fifteen minutes later, he himself smelled strongly of coconut; Cas had obviously used his sexy body to hypnotize him into agreeing to have sunscreen applied but Dean supposed he really couldn’t complain since Cas was the one doing the application.

They made their way over to the river and immediately waded in; the water was a bit chilly but once they got used to it, they were able to dive in. Dean broke the surface to see Cas floating a foot away. Since it was just the two of them, they mostly floated around talking though there were a few water splashing fights that led to a battle to see who could dunk the other; Cas spluttered indignantly to the surface when he lost and Dean made the unfortunate mistake of laughing and pointing out Cas looked like a drowned kitten. He realized how right he’d been when fifteen minutes later, he was thoroughly dunked by Cas in revenge; he’d forgotten how vicious cats can be. Both parties called for a truce and they made their way back to the bank.

“I suppose we better change back huh?” Dean said as they lay on the blanket again. To be honest, he didn’t really want to; this afternoon had been a textbook definition of a lazy summer date and it seemed like such a shame to end it now. Cas turned on to lay on his side facing Dean, he looked just as reluctant as Dean to change back into their regular clothes. 

“Well we could to that,” the other man said slowly, leaning in so he was hovering over Dean who was still sprawled on his back with his arms behind his head, “Or we could enjoy the fact that we are alone in a secluded area while half naked.”

Catching on quickly, Dean looked up at him with a look of pretend confusion that hardly masked his enthusiasm. “But how exactly would we do that Cas?” he asked innocently even while he lifted his hands up to rub at the bare skin of Cas’ sides.

Cas leaned in further so that their noses were inches apart. “I may have an idea or two if you’re interested,” he answered softly to which Dean responded with an eager nod. He was very much interested in seeing the ideas that Cas had for them since he was almost a hundred percent certain they involved rolling around on this blanket while groping each other.

And boy was Dean happy to be proven right.

The kisses didn’t even pretend to start slow this time as Cas rolled over so he was completely on top of him, his arms braced on either side of Dean’s head; Dean shifted his legs so the other man was between them while Cas started his assault on his mouth. Cas kissed him like he was trying to mold the two of them together. Dean sighed happily as his boyfriend’s tongue slipped past his teeth and he tasted a hint of the pie that they had eaten earlier.

Dean wrapped his arms around Cas’ torso, enjoying the slide of his hands over bare skin; he pulled the other man down against him. They both gasped as the movement brought their groins together, hips bucking toward each other unconsciously. Cas changed tactics and moved on to nipping and sucking at Dean’s neck, giving him a chance to breathe which Dean used as an opportunity to slide his hands down and into his boyfriend’s swim trunks; he kneaded at the flesh there and pulled Cas’ hips even closer as he ground upwards. Cas followed his lead and soon they were moving together in a slow roll. 

The friction was causing that delicious heat to build in his belly but Dean knew that it might also be problematic later so, with what little upper brain function he had left, he started to nudge at Cas’ trunks, pushing them down the other man’s hips. The movement was enough to distract Cas from the multitude of hickies he was applying to Dean’s collarbone; understanding what Dean was getting at, he sat back on his heels long enough to pull down Dean’s shorts, freeing his aching erection, before doing the same to himself. He resumed his original position and Dean cursed as the bare skin of their cocks brushed together.

“Fuck, Cas!” he gasped, gripping Cas’ hips again, encouraging him to buck against him. Cas’ response was to groan into the crook of Dean’s neck and start fucking his hips against Dean’s, something that Dean was very much on board with. They were both hard and leaking, pre-come easing the way for their movements; if Dean’s eyes weren’t screwed shut in pleasure, he’s pretty sure he’d be cross eyed with how good it felt to have Cas moving on top of him with nothing between them.

They attempted to kiss again but were both so focused on chasing the edge that their mouth just hovered over each other; the sounds of their panting breath and the slick sound of skin on skin was only barely audible over the sound of the river. The fact that they were outside was making everything ten times hotter in Dean’s mind and that only intensified the sensation of every movement; he wasn’t going to be lasting long but from what he’d learned about Cas, he knew he wasn’t the only one. 

Dean reached around to grip Cas shoulders again as his movements became more desperate and jerky; he was trying to hold on but was slowly losing the battle. Cas had begun to make the quiet little ‘uh’ noises Dean had noticed meant that his boyfriend was barely hanging on as well. 

“Come on Cas, do it, come,” Dean panted in between pressing sloppy kisses to Cas’ neck, “I’m gonna come and I want you to come with me, please, Cas!”

One well placed thrust downward coupled with an upward thrust was all it took for the dam to burst and Dean was coming with a shout, a shout he muffled in Cas’ shoulder as he raked his blunt nails down his boyfriend’s back; this tipped Cas over the edge and the other man followed him with a groan, his hips jerking in the mess between them with the aftershocks. Cas’ arms shook with the exertion of holding himself up and he collapsed on Dean’s chest where they both lay, panting and gasping.

It was several minutes before either of them could muster the energy to move. Cas rolled off off Dean, slowly pulling up his shorts to cover himself. Dean did the same, becoming more and more aware of their current location now that the lust had dissipated. He started to laugh quietly to himself. Cas turned his head to look at him, brows furrowed in confusion.

“I guess I can cross off ‘outdoor sex’ off my bucket list,” Dean said in answer to the unspoken question. Cas laughed and they lay there, trying to reorganize their minds after their brain frying orgasms.

After several minutes Cas sat up and looked over at him. “I guess we should get cleaned up before someone sees us and head home. I don’t feel like getting arrested for public indecency,” he said, reaching down to comb his fingers through Dean’s hair. Dean leaned into the touch but groaned unhappily at the thought of moving.

“Oh, come you big baby,” Cas chided. He stood up and reached down to drag Dean upright. “We have to go home eventually and look at it this way,” He paused to kiss Dean slowly on the lips before pulling away with a teasing smirk, “Now you don’t have to worry about getting an embarrassing erection while we ride back.”

Dean scowled at the joke but ended up laughing along with Cas as they went to change. He was probably never going to live down that little incident but he figured he could deal with it as long as Cas was the one doing the teasing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello lovely people! Thanks to a faulty CVS photo machine that my mother was trying very hard to get to function (for 45 minutes) and the fact that I burnt myself out physically yesterday (never build and cement into place clothesline posts on your own in 90 degree weather coupled with humidity, folks), I was able to knock out this chapter waaay sooner than I thought I would. I hope you enjoyed this long-ish chapter with surprise smut; I hadn't been planning on it but these two are like rabbits, I swear. Anyway, thanks for reading :)


	15. Chapter 15

The weekend after the spur of the moment picnic found Castiel covered in grease and cursing as he tried to find the wrench that he had just seen a minute ago.

“Jeez Clarence, I might as well get the damn thing myself if it’s going to take you this long to find the damn tools,” Meg’s irritated voice drawled as she waved her hand behind her back, waiting for Castiel to give her what she asked for. “Why did I let you come over here again?”

Castiel rolled his eyes, sifting through the large amount of wrenches in Meg’s tool box; his friend wasn’t very meticulous when it came to her work space but she always seemed to know where everything was. After a few more seconds of frustrated searching, he held up the elusive wrench with a cry of triumph and relinquished it to his friend with a flourish.

“All hail the conquering hero,” she snarked as she snatched the implement and turned back to the bike in front of her.

They were currently in Meg’s garage trying to fix up his other motorcycle, a black 1956 Indian Trailblazer, that had been sadly gathering dust for the past year or so since the baker almost always rode his Harley. The Trailblazer had been what he rode until he’d picked up his current bike but he couldn’t bear to part with it; it had been the first bike that was genuinely his and not one he was borrowing from Meg or her parents so he had put it in storage but that was about to change.

Last week he had noticed that Dean wasn’t exactly comfortable riding with him on his bike, not the awkwardness that his boyfriend had been forced to admit to after his bizarre outburst, but just uneasy in general. It was obvious that while Dean had some experience riding a motorcycle, he wasn’t used to it and was a bit freaked out. Castiel planned to change that.

“You know, if I didn’t need you to fix up this thing, I would leave and take my sticky buns with me,” Castiel argued back without any heat. He walked over and crouched down to watch as Meg’s hands skillfully danced around the innards of the bike, bringing everything back into order.

Meg scoffed, “You wouldn’t dare, you’re worthless when it comes to working on bikes and obviously this is a secret from your boy toy since you didn’t ask him to look at it.”

Castiel scowled, knowing he was caught. “It’s not exactly a secret, more of a surprise.”

His plan was to bring Dean over to Meg’s, she had a house on the edge of town so there was a lot of open space, and teach Dean how to ride the Trailblazer. The baker had the idea that his boyfriend would be more at ease if he had a little more practice riding bikes and that would mean the other man would be more comfortable riding with him. It wasn’t that Castiel required his significant other to be able to ride, he’d had boyfriends in the past who refused to even get on his bike let alone ride by themselves, but he could tell that Dean had the very basics of riding with someone else at least, he just needed a bit more confidence. Not to say that the idea of flying down the open road on his Harley and being able to look over and see Dean on the Trailblazer or better yet Dean pressed up against him, relaxed and comfortable, as they went down the road wasn’t something that Castiel had fantasized about but he didn’t want it if it freaked out his boyfriend out hence his plan to get Dean a little practice.

He explained this to Meg as she fiddled around with the bike, occasionally handing her tools; when he was done speaking, she nodded approvingly. 

“You’re probably right, Deano seems like he would be a good fit for riding once he gets over the whole newness of it,” she said, reaching for a rag to clean off some of the grease that had accumulated on her hands, “And this bike’s a good place to start. It’s not too big so it’ll be easy to handle for a guy his size and once he gets a hold on this, it would be easy for him to handle yours.”

“It sounds like a good plan, I think Dean will be up for it though,” Castiel said pensively, putting tools back into the box. “He seems a bit skittish about the whole thing but I’m sure I can bring him around, I’ll just have to be careful in how I ask him about it.”

Meg shrugged as she wheeled the bike across the concrete towards the door. “Yep, you’ll just have nut up and ask and see where it goes. Now let’s fire this bad boy up to be sure everything's good then I have a date with some sticky buns.”

Grinning, Castiel followed his friend outside and, after tweaking one last thing, he started the bike; it came to life with a satisfying rumble that allowed the baker to temporarily forget his brainstorming of ways to present his idea to Dean. He took a few wide, slow circles around Meg’s yard, getting a feel for his old bike again. It was just like he remembered and he couldn’t wait to see his boyfriend riding it.

After a couple more circuits, he steered the bike back to the garage and shut it off. Meg looked at him expectantly; he smirked, knowing exactly what she wanted.

“She runs like a dream Meg,” he said approvingly as he dismounted and started to put the Trailblazer back in the garage. “Certainly worth a half dozen sticky buns.”

His friend pumped her fist in the air victoriously before grabbing the bakery box the was sitting on the seat of Castiel’s Harley. She promptly turned and headed inside.

“Finish cleaning up and there might be a sticky bun left for you when you come inside,” she called cheerily over shoulder as she disappeared through the garage door, leaving Castiel staring at the mess on the floor.

Rolling his eyes, the baker got to work tidying up the workspace. Somehow he always ended up with the cleaning when he helped Meg in the garage.

 

Several hours later, Castiel let himself into his apartment. He was still sweaty and covered in grease from working on the Trailblazer and cleaning up the mess from the repairs and wanted nothing more than a shower and a short nap, helping Meg in the garage was always a bit tiring. He kicked off his boots and ambled down the hall towards his room, stripping off his sweaty t-shirt as he went. Just as he was headed into the bathroom his phone pinged from on his bedside table. Reluctantly he picked it up, thinking it was Meg continuing her harassment, and was delighted to see that it was Dean.

_From Dean: Are you busy? It’s been strongly hinted to me by Sammy that I should leave so that he and Jess can “be alone”_

Castiel chuckled to himself as he wrote his response, he could hear his boyfriend’s voice putting a heaping dose of innuendo on the last phrase. He wasn’t feeling as tired as he had been before but he would be willing to sacrifice his nap for Dean.

_To Dean: Not at the moment, want to come over and hang out with me? You’d be much better company than my TV._

He hit send and wandered to the kitchen to get a drink, not wanting to miss Dean’s response because he was in the shower. His phone pinged again as he poured a glass of juice.

_From Dean: I’ll be right over, if looks could kill I think Sammy would be burying me in the backyard at the moment. He gets grumpy when he’s trying to get some._

Castiel shook his head, Dean just couldn’t help himself when it came to teasing his little brother. 

_To Dean: Better hurry up before Sam decides to actually try and kill you. I have to get a shower so you’ll probably have to let yourself in, there’s a spare key over the top of my door. See you soon._

He finally set down his phone and hurried to the bathroom. Instead of the leisurely shower he had been planning, Castiel sped through his shower, trying to make sure he was done before Dean arrived. Unfortunately the grease on his arms was harder to get off than he’d hoped it would be so when he finally emerged from his room, dressed in a ratty t-shirt and basketball shorts, he found Dean sprawled on his couch, flipping through the channels on the TV. The scene caused him to pause for a moment before announcing his presence since the fact that Dean was obviously comfortable in his home made him strangely happy.

“I see you managed to escape alive,” the baker teased as he padded over to the couch. He bent down to brush a quick kiss on his boyfriend’s cheek before sitting down next to him. “Was it a close call?”

Huffing a laugh; Dean paused in his search for something to watch long enough to pull Castiel in for a proper kiss before settling back against the sofa. “I barely made it out alive,” he replied dramatically, scooting over so the baker could sit next to him, “Sammy practically threw me out of the door once I mentioned I was going to come over here; he barely gave me a chance to toss some shoes before he was pushing me out of the house.”

“Poor baby,” Castiel cooed teasingly, patting Dean on his scruffy cheek. The other man must’ve skipped shaving this weekend, his fingers tingled where they rasped over the stubble. “That sounds absolutely awful, you’ll just have to stay here and laze around with me until you recover from your trauma.”

Dean smothered his grin with an overly dramatic pout and nodded solemnly; he held out his arms invitingly and Castiel obliged, sliding over so he was pressed against his side. Once they were situated, he sighed. “So, what are we watching?”

 

They watched mindless afternoon TV for the next couple hours, enjoying each other’s company more than the actual programs. Eventually they moved so that Dean was at one end of the couch, feet propped up on the coffee table, allowing Castiel to pillow his head in his lap. This proved to be a mistake since not soon after the rearrangement, the baker’s need for a nap caught up with him.

He wasn’t sure how long he’d been out but he woke up to a hand carding gently through his hair; he hummed contentedly causing Dean to laugh. 

“Do you know you have a smudge of grease behind your ear?” Dean’s voice rumbled quietly, full of amusement.

Blinking the sleep out of his eyes, he sat up and stretched, dislodging the hand from his scalp; Castiel moved so he was sitting next to Dean on the couch instead and attempted to avoid the question.

“How long was I out?” he mumbled sleepily. He got off the couch and wandered into the kitchen, needing a drink. Dean followed him; he pressed himself against Castiel’s back and rested his chin on his shoulder.

“Not long, maybe about half an hour,” Dean replied, his cheek moving against Castiel’s. “What were you doing today that you got grease on you? Trying a new baking method or something?”

Castiel leaned back against him and chuckled while his brain worked overtime. What should he tell him? He had wanted the Trailblazer to be a surprise but he had also wanted to wait a bit before broaching the subject. 

“I was helping Meg fix up my old bike,” he hedged, deciding the he wasn’t going to outright lie, “I’ve been neglecting her lately.”

Dean looked at him in confusion, “You just hung out with Meg on Wednesday, how’s that neglect?”

Castiel laughed, just now realizing the pronoun mix up. “The bike, Dean, I meant the bike.”

The look on Dean’s face as he put the pieces together was downright adorable and Castiel was leaning forward to give his boyfriend a kiss on the cheek before he registered what he was doing; he grabbed his drink and the glass he’d poured for Dean out of habit and went back to the couch, knowing the other man would follow.

“Why are you fixing up your old bike? Is there something wrong with the Harley?” Dean asked with genuine concern as the settled back onto the couch, this time with Castiel tucked under Dean’s arm, “I could take a look at her if you want.”

“Oh, there’s nothing wrong with my bike,” Castiel quickly assured him, “I just felt that it was time to get the old girl out of storage.” A brief and crazy wave of semi-confidence washed over him and in the ensuing mental madness, he continued with a nonchalance that sounded forced even to his ears as he toyed with the edge of the blanket he’d ended up sitting on, “I thought maybe we could go riding together now that the Trailblazer is up and running, I’ve always loved the idea of going on a ride with someone.” 

“Cas,” Dean said in a hesitant tone that had Castiel tensing slightly, waiting for whatever the other man had to say, “I don’t know...I don’t think...I’m really not made for riding a motorcycle. I’m more of a car person.” 

Disappointment washed over the baker and without thinking on whether it was wise or not, he began to protest. “Come on, don’t be a scaredy cat, I’m sure you would be fine with a little practice. Besides you did alright riding with me so what’s the problem? It’s not like you’re one of those people who’s afraid of motorcycles or anything.”

When nothing but strained silence answered him, Castiel sat up and turned to look at his boyfriend. Dean was wearing a strange expression that the baker swore was a mix of shame and embarrassment; the other man was trying to avoid his gaze. He quickly replayed the last few minutes of the conversation and froze as he put the pieces together. 

Oh.

_Well so much for being careful when bringing up the subject_ , a strangely Meg-like voice echoed in his head, _I’m sure teasing him about being bike shy is totally going help win him over._

Damnit. 

“Dean...are you afraid of motorcycles?” Castiel asked hesitantly, trying to get the other man to look at him. When no answer came, Castiel sighed and looked at the ceiling. “Dean, I know that I talk about going riding a lot but I would still want to be with you even if you weren’t into it, you know that right?”

“I’m not afraid exactly,” Dean said, resting his head on the back of the sofa for a minute before looking back at Castiel, “It’s just...you love riding your bike and I want to be involved in what you like to do but I’ve tried it before and it’s kind of freaked me out in the past. I’m a bit twitchy about trying again.”

“Dean, you do know that being able to ride a motorcycle is not requirement to be with me?” the baker asked delicately, the puzzle pieces clicking into place now that he’d stop freaking himself out. His suspicions were confirmed by the sheepish expression on Dean’s face and the slight flush that crept across his cheeks. 

It was true he did tend to talk about riding a lot, about how fun it was to just get on his bike and head off to parts unknown, and how it was even better when he had company but Castiel never seen the harm in it; it was like how Dean expounded the virtues of his Impala. Castiel actually enjoyed seeing how passionate his boyfriend was about his car, enjoyed seeing his face light up when he talked about how he’d spent an hour tuning her up so the baker had never really considered that maybe all his talk about motorcycles would make Dean feel left out or like he didn’t fit into what Castiel wanted.

Time to set that record straight.

“Okay, first things first,” he began, shifting so that he was kneeling on the couch next to Dean and could look at him properly. “Never think that there’s anything about you that I would want you to unwillingly change; you’re perfect the way you are. If there’s anything you would want to do, I want you to know I would support you but I’m not going to force you to learn to ride or anything like that if you don’t want to.”

“But I do…” Dean started to so speak before Castiel placed a hand gently over his mouth to quiet him.

“Hold on, I need to get this out first,” he said in explanation as Dean’s eyebrows knitted together in annoyance. “The reason I fixed up my old bike is because I hoped that you would be interested in learning to ride. I was going to ask if you were interested but I planned to leave the decision up to you but I guess I underestimated my ability to accept your answer gracefully and by trying to convince you to change your mind, I embarrassed you and for that I’m sorry. I hope you’ll forgive me for being pushy.” 

Having said his piece, Castiel removed his hand from Dean’s mouth; to his surprise, Dean grabbed his hand and held onto it. “I’m not mad at you or anything. I’m just a bit frustrated with myself because like I said, I really do want to be involved in that part of your life but I am a little afraid of wiping out or something and here you are all fearless and shit.”

“Dean, it’s not like I was like this when I first started learning,” Castiel replied, starting to get a good handle on what he needed to say, “You should have seen me the first time Meg had me on a bike, I think my hands were shaking a bit. I’m comfortable now because I know what I’m doing and I think you would be the same way. I mean, the other weekend you did extremely well riding with me once you’d had a little time to adjust, I’m positive you’d be able to learn how to ride solo.”

“And most of my brain knows you’re probably right, I guess I didn’t react well to having it sprung on me like that,” Dean answered, his hand falling from its place on the back of the couch to rub lightly at Castiel’s shoulder, who took this as a sign that they were almost out of the argument danger zone they had been careening towards.

The baker sighed and put his hand on top of the other man’s, “I didn’t exactly go about asking the best way didn’t I?” he said ruefully, gripping the strong fingers under his own, “That plus the unfortunate teasing and this just didn’t go as planned.”

To his surprise, Dean smiled and chuckled quietly. “Well I guess it wasn’t entirely your fault,” he said in response to Castiel’s confused look, “I sort of forced you into telling me when you obviously weren’t to keen on talking about it. So how about we chalk this up to an unfortunate mix of things and let it go?”

Castiel couldn’t believe how lucky he was. He had almost started an argument and unwittingly shamed his boyfriend and yet Dean was willing to just let it go when he had a right to at least be mad for a little while. 

“So we can just go back to watching TV and you won’t be even a little mad at me for making you uncomfortable?” Castiel asked in disbelief. Dean smiled and nodded to which Castiel responded with a loud kiss on his boyfriend’s mouth. “You’re the best boyfriend ever you know that?”

Dean preened under this praise and nudged at Castiel so that he was tucked under his arm and he could rest his cheek on his head. “I try,” he said smugly, “Besides Cas, if this is the only fight we ever have, and that’s exaggerating a little for this, I think that makes us pretty lucky.”

Castiel nodded happily and they settled back down and continued to watch boring afternoon TV as it slowly turned into slightly more interesting evening TV. Eventually the rumbling of their stomachs encouraged the baker to emerge from their nest on the couch and amble to the kitchen, dragging a loose-limbed and slightly pouting Dean with him, so he can make them some sandwiches for dinner. They returned to the living room to eat and whiled away the rest of the evening debating the current incarnation of the History Channel really counted as history (Castiel was of the opinion that it wasn’t while Dean just liked all the drama centered reality type shows). Sooner than either of them would have liked, it was time for Dean to head home; Castiel saw him to the door.

“Drive safe,” Castiel said between placing quick kisses on Dean’s mouth while the other man ran his hands up and down his back, “Let me know you got home okay.”

Dean hummed in agreement and after one last slightly heated kiss, pulled away. He looked at Castiel with a strangely determined face.

“Now I’m not saying yes,” Dean said hesitantly, rubbing the back of his neck, a sign that the baker had come to realize meant the man was trying to say something he’d been thinking about for a while; Castiel waited with bated breath for what Dean had to say. “But, I’ll think about the motorcycle thing okay?”

Grinning stupidly, Castiel gripped Dean by the back of the neck and showed his appreciation for his boyfriend’s considering his offer of motorcycle riding lessons by kissing the daylights out of him. “Thank you, Dean,” he said when he pulled away, leaving Dean looking a bit dazed, dazed but happy. 

The other man chuckled and said goodnight and left; Castiel closed the door and, noticing how late it was, began to get ready for bed; that night he may or may not have dreamed about himself on his Harley, looking over to see Dean astride the Trailblazer, grinning roguishly at him as they flew down the highway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this chapter went nothing how I thought it would. I was going to attempt to have Dean and Cas nerd out over bike mechanical things but I've learned that technical type writing just isn't one of my strong suits so I tried another route and this strange kinda sorta argument thing happened. As you can see my argument writing skills aren't exactly that solid but I guess that's the reason most of my stuff is so fluffy and happy, haha. To those of you who are still reading this, thank you so much for reading. :)


	16. Chapter 16

Dean’s stomach was slowly twisting itself into a mess of knots. He was fidgeting nervously on the couch, looking at his phone; Cas was supposed to be here soon but he wasn’t exactly sure if he was ready yet.

Today was his first motorcycle lesson.

When he had left Cas’ apartment two weeks ago, Dean had been pretty sure he was going to have to find a nice way to let his boyfriend down on the whole bike issue. He hadn’t been lying to him, he did want to learn but his brain was all too happy to list the multitude of things that could go wrong not only with the lessons, but with Dean actually riding on his own. What if Dean freaked out and wrecked? Sure it could just be some minor damage to himself but he might ruin Cas’ bike, which just happened to carry a whole heap of sentimental value, or he might crash _into_ Cas while they were riding, hurting his boyfriend and wrecking both of his bikes, or he might smash into a car or....

And on and on the list went so that by the time Dean pulled into the driveway, he was thoroughly set on telling Cas that, while he appreciated the effort to include him in his motorcycle stuff, maybe it would be best if they limited Dean’s involvement to riding along with Cas on his nice easy rides.

Unfortunately Dean hadn’t been able to find what he felt was the best way to express these thoughts before Monday so he had spent several uncomfortable, at least from his perspective, lunches with Cas at the bakery. The baker hadn’t seemed outwardly peeved at the lack of answer and had appeared perfectly content to wait for Dean to come to a decision which, of course, made the mechanic feel a bit shitty considering he knew what his decision was.

Cas was one of the sweetest, most patient guys Dean had ever met and all he wanted was to have his boyfriend involved in something he loved to do so why couldn’t Dean man up and just do it?

The frustration he felt over the situation must not have been as concealed as he had thought considering what happened the weekend after the week of strained lunches.

Dean had been sitting on the living room couch when his dad walked in and sat in his chair. Nothing strange there so he had continued watching TV, at least nothing strange until his dad started to speak.

“So, uh, I noticed you’ve been pretty quiet this week. You and that Novak boy having some problems?” John had asked gruffly with a tone that he probably thought was nonchalant but wasn’t really. He had even had a newspaper open as he’d sat in his chair in order to project an air of relaxed disinterest but Dean had known this wasn’t the case. His dad was very invested in how his and Cas’ relationship was faring considering how much he liked to brag about being the one to introduce them.

Dean, not taking his line of vision from the TV screen, had thought very carefully before answering. His first reaction had been to lie, what kind of person talks about their boyfriend with their dad? But after a long week of worrying, Dean was a bit desperate for someone to give him feedback and decided that maybe his dad would have a solution to say what he needed to say.

“Kinda,” he’d answered reluctantly, still not looking over at his dad. He’d had a feeling his dad was avoiding looking at him too, this whole ‘talking about boyfriend problems with his father’ thing was bad enough without adding awkward eye contact into the mix. “Cas wants to teach me how to ride a motorcycle so I can go riding with him but I don’t think I’m meant to drive anything with less than four wheels. I’m trying to find a nice way to say no but everything I come up with sounds stupid, not to mention the fact that I feel like crap because Cas is being patient and nice and I’m not even going to be able to do what he wants and…”

“Whoa, slow your roll Dean,” John had said, cutting off Dean’s ranting, which was slipping slowly into panicked babbling. There’d been a rustling sound as his dad dropped the paper onto his lap; Dean could feel his dad looking at him but he continued to stare the TV, hoping that lack of eye contact would make this strange situation easier in some way. His dad had huffed in annoyance and suddenly the TV was switched off. “Dean, I know that you aren’t that absorbed in testosterone pills that turn grandpas into creepy bodybuilders, now look at me.”

Without the TV as a distraction, Dean had been forced to look at his dad who was looking at him with that ‘we’re going to have this uncomfortable father-son chat and we’re doing it now’ look; he cringed as he turned to face his father. “What?” he’d asked a bit petulantly despite the fact he’d essentially initiated this conversation of his own free will. 

His dad had cocked a brow at him in response, looking unimpressed with Dean’s attempts to act like he didn’t actually want advice. “Don’t sass me boy, I’m not the one skulking on the couch watching infomercials after acting like a grumpy ass all week. Now how about you calm down and give me the whole story and maybe, just maybe, I might be able to help you sort through that rat’s nest that you call a brain.” 

So with a decidedly pout-less demeanor, Dean had laid out Cas’ offer to teach him how to ride a motorcycle and how he’d gotten the feeling that, while Cas hadn’t said it outright, it was something very important to him which meant Dean felt like a real asshole for wanting to say no. 

“Well,” John had said as he leaned back into his armchair, his face contemplative, “A part of me wants to tell you not to do something you aren’t comfortable with.” Dean’s shoulders had relaxed a bit; maybe he wasn’t acting unreasonable after all.“But,” his dad had continued, breaking him out of his mental sigh of relief, “I think you should do it.”

Dean had blinked stupidly for a minute, thinking he’d misheard, before blurting out, “How do you go from ‘not doing things I’m uncomfortable with’ to ‘go ahead and ride the two wheeled accident waiting to happen’?”

This outburst had earned him a rolling of the eyes that usually meant his dad thought he was being overdramatic and ok, maybe he was acting a bit over excited but he’d been hoping his dad would go with the tried and true ‘do what you think is best’ thing that he had obviously been leaning towards and leave it at that; Dean hadn’t expected this, especially from the man who was almost always giving speeches about not being reckless. Hell the first time he’d been given the keys to the Impala, there had been a two hour sermon on checking blind spots and being extra careful at intersections; as if Dean would do anything to damage his precious baby. 

“I think you should do it because, despite your strange train of thought on the subject, I think you would like it and that you might even actually be good at it,” John explained as if this were obvious to everyone but Dean, “You’re a very good driver Dean, with an intelligent head on your shoulders, learning to drive a motorcycle will be a piece of cake for you.”

“But what if I screw up and wreck Cas’ bike or something?” Dean had countered as he turned on the couch to face his dad fully. He’d run his hand agitatedly through his hair before exasperatedly looking at the other man. “He’s letting ride his first ever motorcycle for crying out loud, that thing probably has a ton of sentimental value and I’ll probably end up fucking it up.”

Once again his dad had rolled his eyes and heaved a put upon sigh before answering.“You think Cas’d offer to teach you how to ride a bike and not anticipate the chance you’ll wipeout at time or two?” he’d argued back, an eyebrow cocked critically. “The man knows what he’s doing, he wouldn’t have asked if he didn’t think you could handle it.”

Dean had nodded thoughtfully. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to give it a try huh?” he’d replied sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his neck. Hearing the same argument the small voice in the back of his head had been trying to make over the last week from his dad made that louder voice that had been screaming ‘no way in hell’ all week seem kinda stupid.

His dad had leaned back in his chair and folded his arms, his face had been the very definition of smugly satisfied parent.

“Yes and if it turns out you don’t like it, which I think is highly unlikely by the way knowing you, I’m sure Cas will just be happy that you tried,” his dad had responded matter of factly with a short nod before he clapped his hands briskly, “Now enough with this touchy feely nonsense, you text that boy and tell him you’d love to learn how to ride a motorcycle.”

While shaking his head at his dad’s attempts to be ‘manly’ after their talk, Dean had quickly typed out a text telling Cas that he’d had time to think and he was willing to give learning to ride a motorcycle a try. Once he’d hit the send button with a surprising amount of determination, he had looked over to see his dad nodding in satisfaction.

“There...done,” he’d said as he pocketed his phone. He’d felt ten times lighter now that that boulder had been removed from his shoulders, it was like he could breathe better. “Thanks Dad.”

John had chuckled as he leaned forward in his chair and clapped Dean on the shoulder heartily. “All part of the job, son,” he’d rumbled, “But if you really wanted to say thanks, you could go help your mom with the flower beds.”

His dad’s not so subtle hint coupled with his ever so slightly pleading face had Dean laughing.

“You came in here to hide from Mom didn’t you?” he’d asked, shaking his head at his dad’s attempt to avoid helping his mom with her many flower beds in the backyard; all the Winchester men were guilty of trying to skip out of that duty.

“Of course not, I saw you wallowing in front of the TV and decided to help,” John had protested unconvincingly, unable to meet Dean’s eyes fully.

Dean hadn’t been able to resist an eye roll as he’d risen from the couch and left the living room to spend the rest of the afternoon sweating in the backyard helping his mom weed her flower beds. As he’d been fighting with a particularly stubborn weed, his phone vibrating in his pocket had spooked him while it gave him a reminder that he’d been waiting for a response to the text he’d sent earlier.

_From Cas: I was hoping that would be your decision! I can’t wait to start teaching you :D Does next weekend sound good?_

 

Flash forward to one week in the future and here Dean was, freaking out as he gathers his jacket to head outside; Cas had finally texted saying he was out front. He took one last breath, attempting to soothe his nerves and succeeding a little bit, before opening the door.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Cas asked hesitantly after their usual kiss hello. He held Dean back a pace so he could eye him critically, a small frown on his face. “You look like you’re about to puke or something. I don’t want to force you to do something you don’t--”

“No!” Dean quickly reassured him, hands waving around in a placating gesture, “I do want to with like, ninety percent of my brain, it’s just the other ten isn’t so sure…”

Cas’ mouth opened, obviously preparing to protest.

“But,” Dean continued, putting a stop to whatever his boyfriend had been about to say, “I realized that learning to ride is something might really be up my alley if I can just get passed the whole freak out thing.”

There was a moment of quiet following this explanation where Dean felt like those blue eyes were x-raying him, trying to decide if he was a big fat liar. He tried to arrange himself so he looked confident yet nonchalant and not at all worried about the impending lesson but probably managed to only look a smidge less anxious.

Cas sighed, “Alright, I did say the decision was up to you but…” he pointed a finger at Dean’s chest, a determined look on his face, “If I think you’re not enjoying it and are forcing yourself to continue just to make me happy, I reserve the right to stop the lesson.”

“That sounds fair,” Dean replied, nodding his head; then in an attempt to lighten up the situation, which had gotten awfully serious, he offered “Seal the deal with a kiss?”

This, coupled with a wiggle of his eyebrows and a heavy application of an exaggerated flirty face, caused the other man’s stern expression to crack and Cas chuckled.

“You’re such a goof, come here,” he said as he pulled Dean in for a quick kiss. He handed Dean what Cas referred to as his helmet before picking up his own and swinging a leg over the Harley; he looked back over his shoulder as he got ready to put on his helmet. “Let’s get a move on, we’re wasting daylight.”

 

A short ride later, they were pulling into the driveway next to a small yellow house. Dean nodded to himself as he observed where Cas’ friend Meg lived. He’d only met the sassy brunette a few times in passing at Cas’ apartment and the cafe, besides that first time at the disaster cookout of course, and while at first he wasn’t quite sure how to take her sarcastic comments and teasing, she was starting to grow on him a little bit. 

He and Cas clambered off the bike and removed their helmets. Cas had told him earlier that Meg was gone for the weekend, some family thing, but she told Cas to make themselves at home. Cas walked over to the garage which was just about as big as the house and reached up to feel around for what Dean assumed was the garage key. With a sound of triumph, the other man used the key to unlock the side door to the garage.

“Come on in and meet your bike Dean,” Cas said with a grin as he disappeared into the building. Dean followed, working very hard to not look as nervous as he felt; he entered the cool of the garage, breathing in the familiar and comforting scents of metal, grease and gas. It felt like walking into Bobby’s garage and it actually went a long way to helping calm his nerves.

Cas was standing next to a black motorcycle, an excited smile on his face that quite frankly made him look adorable. “Well, what do you think?” he asked, his voice dripping with excitement.

The bike, an Indian Trailblazer if he remembered correctly, was in great condition considering how long it had been in storage. It looked like it was lighter than Cas’ Harley but didn’t appear to to be a lightweight; the black paint job and the chrome were shining in the glow from the overhead lights. From how Cas had been lamenting the condition of the bike, Dean had been expecting it to look way rougher than it was but then he suspected his boyfriend was as obsessive over the condition of his bikes as he was over the condition of the Impala.

“She’s gorgeous Cas,” Dean answered truthfully. He ran hand over the curling letters on the gas tank before looking up just in time to see a wave of relief pass over the other man’s face. “I don’t know what you were worrying about, I’m not an expert on bikes but it seems to me she’s in practically mint condition. You’ve really put a lot of work into this.”

The other man blushed and scuffed his boots on the concrete mumbling something about regular maintenance before getting a hold of himself and suggesting they head outside and get started. Dean gulped surreptitiously as he remember, again, why they were here.

Once they’d wheeled the Trailblazer out so it stood next to the Harley, Cas gave him a thorough walk through on the controls for his old bike and the quirks unique to driving it that he’d picked up over the years. The other man had Dean sit on the bike and recite the various controls and point them out several times before they moved on. 

The one advantage they had was that Dean already understood the concept of shifting considering he’d been able to drive standard for years so soon it was time for the part that had Dean’s stomach twisting and turning: actually riding the bike. 

“Let’s start out an easy pace,” Cas said as they wheeled the bike over to the large patch of dirt off to the side of the garage. “Just start her up, get her into first gear, ride over the the garage and stop.”

Dean nodded jerkily and straddled the Trailblazer. He started to put his helmet on when Cas stopped him and kissed him softly. “Relax Dean, you’ve got this okay?”

“If you say so,” Dean mumbled quietly to himself as he put on his helmet. Cas stepped back to give him room. Taking a breath to steel himself, Dean started the bike; the bike rumbled to life beneath him causing his stomach to clench anxiously. This was actually happening, he was going to drive a motorcycle alone. He took one last mental walk through of what Cas had taught him and, praying that he didn’t forget anything important, shifted the bike into first gear.

It was all somewhat anticlimactic in retrospect.

First of all, the bike only eased forward at a brisk walking pace so the speed didn’t freak him out. As cliche as it sounded, it was like riding a bike. He didn’t fall over or mix up the throttle and the clutch like he’d been afraid of and in the blink of an eye he was bringing the bike to a stop at the garage; he didn’t even crash into the side of the building. 

“Holy shit, I did it!” he exclaimed as he pulled off the helmet after killing the engine. Cas jogged over, a big grin plastered across his face, and patted him on the shoulder as he laughed.

“Of course you did,” his boyfriend said matter of factly. Dean looked over at the other man and received another kiss in reward. “You’re a natural, I can tell. Soon you’ll be riding circles around me.”

Dean shook his head and laughed. He felt a million times lighter now that he was actually doing the riding part. “I don’t think that’ll happen but I have to admit, I was overreacting a bit. That’s wasn’t bad at all; it was actually kinda fun.”

“Perfect, I’m glad to hear you like it,” Cas replied, he stepped away from the bike and nodded towards the yard. “Now come on, we’re wasting perfectly good riding time; let’s try going in a big circle this time.”

 

Several hours of bike riding 101 later, they sat with their backs against Meg’s garage, drinking some sodas Cas had liberated from his friend’s fridge reasoning that she mooched his food all the time so she couldn’t complain about a few drinks. Dean was leaning against the other man’s shoulder, nodding off slightly in the late afternoon sun; he hadn’t been able to sleep very well last night, or for the last week or so if he were being honest, and the lack of good sleep was catching up with him apparently.

“Don’t fall asleep on me sleepyhead,” Cas’ voice rumbled in his ear. “We still have to put the Trailblazer away and drive you home.”

Now that his stomach wasn’t the home to a bunch of writhing snake things, Dean was acting more like himself which meant that he responded to Cas’ logic by grumbling and burying his head into his boyfriend’s shoulder a bit more. “Nope, time for a nap,” he argued with mock seriousness.

Dean yelped as Cas suddenly moved to stand and he fell over onto the grass in a heap. Cas chuckled and looked down at him sprawled on the grass. “Well if you want a nap,” the other man reasoned, “We’ll get your bike squared away and head back. Maybe if you cooperate and you’re really nice to me, I might be persuaded to hang around at your house for a few hours and we can watch that doctor show of yours.”

This had Dean perking up. An afternoon lounging and napping in his comfy bed with Cas while watching Dr. Sexy? Yeah, that sounded like a good reason to get up off the ground. He popped up surprisingly fast, to Cas’ great amusement, and began to put the Trailblazer back in the garage. 

He was putting down the kickstand and making sure the bike wasn’t going to fall over when there was suddenly a pair of arms around his waist and a Cas-shaped heat at his back; Dean grinned and leaned back into the embrace, enjoying how perfectly awesome this moment was.

“I wanted to say thank you for giving this a try,” his boyfriend’s voice rumbled in his ear, his chin hooked over Dean’s shoulder, “I can’t tell you how at home you looked on this bike, not to mention sexy. I just might have you to take it with you when you go back to school so I can think about you riding it there.”

And just like that Dean’s cozy mood evaporated like water on a hot stove.

In his worry about the motorcycle lessons, he’d totally forgotten he was going back to school in two weeks.

_Fuck._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally!  
> This chapter was an absolute horror to write as you can probably tell from the month and a half time-frame it took me to get this out. One problem was I hadn't actually planned to write about Dean learning to ride a bike (mainly because I have absolutely positively no knowledge on how to ride a bike) but this is where the story ended up so I've had to do a bunch of research and I'm not even sure if I wrote the process right anyway. The second reason this took an eon to get to you is my love/hate relationship with dialogue but I think I've found a new way to go about writing that so it won't be a problem in the future. So to all of you who are still keeping up with this, now that we're past this bit, I'm back on track story-wise so the next update should be much sooner *fingers crossed* Thanks for reading! :)


	17. Chapter 17

“So Cassie, what’s the deal with Twitchy McTwitcherson?”

Castiel broke the staring contest he was having with the cafe door that Dean had just exited to look over at his brother. Gabriel’s face was actually somewhat serious which just added to the baker’s worries.

“I’m not exactly sure,” he replied bewilderedly, tugging on his apron distractedly, “He’s been acting a bit odd for the past couple days.”

“You mean odder than he normally acts?” Gabe supplied, obviously trying to lighten the mood but not succeeding very much. Castiel rolled his eyes and reminded his employee/brother that there were about five dozen mini tarts that needed boxed up for a local business’s company picnic before wandering back to the kitchen to start a batch of lemon cookies he’d promised for his mother.

Dean had been acting very strange over the past few days and it was legitimately starting to make him worry.

Everything had been fine leading up to Dean’s motorcycle lesson the previous Saturday but that evening, as they had been curled up together in his boyfriend’s bed, the other man had seemed a bit preoccupied with his own thoughts. Not being one to worry, Castiel had decided that maybe Dean was thinking about something at work or making some mental preparations for going back to college and had laid back and savored the feeling of having his boyfriend wrapped around him.

But Dean had continued to remain distracted and nervous ever since.

When they had lunch everyday, Dean wouldn’t really contribute to the conversation, instead seeming content to let Castiel ramble on while he nodded along but the baker could see something was weighing heavily on his boyfriend’s mind. He knew that Dean was a bit of a worrier, okay maybe a bit more than a bit, but this was definitely something new to their relationship and now that it had stretched on for almost a week, it was starting to make him worry too.

Castiel finished mixing the dough for the cookies and put the bowl in the walk-in fridge so the dough could chill. When he came out, Gabe was lounging against the table eating one of the rejected strawberry tarts from this morning. 

“Baking away our feelings again are we?” his brother drawled as he took in the various bowls and ingredients on the table while popping another bite of tart into his mouth.

“No, not at all,” Castiel lied even as he rummaged through the cabinets for ingredients. Maybe he could make some mini-pies and entice Dean to talk. He had invited Dean over tonight for dinner and a movie in hopes that if they could talk in private, his boyfriend could be persuaded to let him in on what was bothering him.

“Yeah, sure. Anyway, I’m going to go and deliver those tarts,” Gabe said. He walked back towards the kitchen door, “Don’t bake all the ingredients in one go because you’re in a tizzy about Muscles McGee, you know that the delivery guy isn’t coming for another week.”

Castiel, annoyed at his brother’s teasing, flipped him off as he left the kitchen.

“Love you too little brother!” came the response from the window that opened to the cafe.

Rolling his eyes at his brother and wondering if it was really worth the stress to his nerves to keep Gabriel as an employee, Castiel lost himself in the familiar rhythm of mixing, rolling and juggling various baking projects so that several hours later he had not only finished his mother’s lemon cookies and Dean’s pies, he’d done the prep for the next day’s orders and cleaned the kitchen so it shone. The clock alerted him that it was time to close up, a process that would take a little longer since it was Friday which meant he had to run to the bank, so he took off his apron and told his brother he was free to go on the condition he deliver the lemon cookies to their mother.

Not needing a second invitation, Gabriel was out the door in a flash leaving Castiel on his own to finish closing up and despite being distracted by his own thoughts, soon he was heading out to drop off the deposit at the bank and to run to the store for the ingredients for the casserole he wanted to make for tonight.

 

Around six that evening there was a knock at the door.

Castiel looked up from the show he had been pretending to watch on the TV and took a deep breathe, hoping to settle his nerves.

While he had been out grocery shopping, the baker had decided he was going to get to the bottom of whatever was bothering to Dean before the night was over even if that meant forcing the other man to talk. The only problem was he was partially afraid to find out. What if he had done something and now Dean wanted to break up with him? All while cooking supper, Castiel had analyzed every interaction over the past few weeks looking for anything he may have done to make Dean decide this all wasn’t going to work out but couldn’t think of anything. 

Another knock on the door echoed through the living room, startling Castiel slightly and reminding him that Dean was at the door. He hurried down the hall to let the other man in. 

Dean had been about to knock again when Castiel opened the door and froze, one hand poised to knock, before lowering said hand sheepishly. “Hey Cas,” he said in that slightly off tone of voice that had become the norm as of late.

Moving aside, Castiel ushered his boyfriend inside. “You know you could’ve let yourself in, you know you’re always welcome,” he said as they walked into the living room, “I have no problem with you coming over, especially since I invited you.”

“Force of habit I guess,” Dean mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck, something the baker had noticed meantime the other man was either anxious or embarrassed. “Mom always says it’s bad manners not to knock.”

They sat side by side on the couch, an unusual amount of distance between them. Castiel looked over at Dean but the other man wouldn’t meet his eyes.

For some reason this avoidance was the final straw and Castiel snapped. He’d been planning to do this after dinner but he wasn’t sure he could sit through another strained meal today; lunch had been bad enough, he wasn’t going to have dinner like this.

“Okay Dean,” he said patiently, turning so he was facing his boyfriend. “I was going to see if you would tell me on your own but I can’t stand it anymore, what is wrong?”

This finally jogged Dean out of his strange pensive state. The other man stiffened and his face actually got a bit pale. Was what was bothering him really that bad?

“Wrong?” Dean responded in a higher tone of voice than usual. He attempted to lean back and look relaxed, crossing his arms and smiling but Castiel wasn’t fooled. “Nothing’s wrong”

Sighing tiredly, Castiel leaned onto his side so he was looking into his boyfriend’s eyes. There was worry and a bit of fear there and he didn’t like that one bit. “You’re a crappy liar and you’ve been acting strange for days,” he explained calmly, “Even Gabriel noticed today and he’s one of the most unobservant people that I know.” He reached out to cup Dean’s stubbly cheek with his hand, his thumb brushing softly over his cheekbone. “Now enough deflection, what is going on?”

“I swear, there’s nothing wrong Cas,” Dean said emphatically, “I’ve just been tired, the garage had been super busy and Dad has me doing some work on mom’s car and…”

“Dean,” Castiel interrupted, leveling a stern look at the babbling man.

His boyfriend fell silent and looked up at the ceiling as if it held on the answers before covering his face with his hands. Castiel waited patiently and was rewarded after several long seconds by the muffled noise of Dean talking into his hands. He calmly asked the other man to repeat himself.

“I’m going back to school in about a week.”

Well that wasn’t what Castiel had been expecting.

He looked back at Dean’s obviously distressed face, his head tilted in confusion. “Yes, you are but why are you upset about that?” the baker asked.

Dean stared at him like he had grown several more heads. “How can I not be upset?” Dean countered, his voice showing more emotion now than it had in a week. “I’m going to be going back to college, a place that is several hours away and we won’t be able to see each other for weeks at a time and we’ll probably drift apart and break up and--”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up,” Castiel blurted out, raising his hands as if the physically stop the barrage of anxiety that was currently issuing forth from his boyfriend. He reached out and pulled Dean’s hand away from his face and held onto them tightly, looking into Dean’s eyes. 

The abject misery he saw in those green eyes made his heart ache. Everything made sense now of course, Dean thought that he was going to break up with him once the novelty of a long distance relationship wore off, but he wasn’t exactly sure how to respond to this. He rifled through his brain looking for a way to get Dean to get out of his own head and listen to reason.

"Dean,” he said, deciding how he wanted to go about this. He leaned them both back into the corner of the couch so that Dean’s back was mostly on his chest and could wrap his arms around him. “Do you know what the two most important ingredients in baking are?" 

As expected this seemingly abrupt change in subject did the trick, the other man craned his neck looked at him in bewilderment, "Uh, flour and sugar?" 

Castiel ignored the expression on his boyfriend’s face that indicated the other man thought he’d lost it. "No, patience and hard work. Great bread doesn't just pop up on its own you know, you have to be willing to do the work and have the patience to wait for it,” the baker explained, softly brushing a hand up and down Dean’s arm, “That goes for a great relationship too.”

Now Dean seemed to see where he was going with this little aside and he sat up slightly so he could face him. That little wrinkle of worry had settled back between his eyebrows and the baker wanted to smooth it away permanently.

"But long distance is going to be difficult,” Dean argued, running a hand through his hair distractedly, “You'll be running the shop and my program is going to start getting intense this year.” The other man paused and took one of Castiel’s hands in his, toying aimlessly with the baker’s fingers and not meeting his eyes before continuing glumly. “You deserve better than seeing each other one weekend a month plus a few holiday breaks." 

Castiel took back his hand so he could take Dean’s face between his hands and kiss his lips softly. "So do you but I think we can do it,” he said confidently, making sure that Dean was looking at him so his boyfriend could see his conviction. The mechanic seemed skeptical but Castiel was positive that he could see a glimmer of hope in those eyes now so he pressed the advantage. “Besides there's always phone calls, texting and Skype, we'll still see each other," he continued in an upbeat tone, “This isn’t the olden days when if someone went away there was no way of communicating with them.”

Dean chuckled slightly and smiled a bit ruefully. “I guess you’re right,” he agreed slowly. Castiel smiled, glad that he’d been able to get Dean to see things his way but the other man pointed a finger at him, his face serious, “But if we do this and I want you to be honest with me about whether you’re happy or not, okay?”

The baker nodded, “The same goes for you though I’m very confident that we’ll be just fine,” he said, “You’re one of the best things to happen to me in a very long time Dean and I’m not going to let this go just because you have to go back to school for a bit. Now, are you feeling better?”

It was obvious from the relaxed state of Dean’s shoulders and the small smile present on his lips that the other man was feeling better but Castiel wanted to be sure so when the smile grew and was followed by a nod, the small knot of worry in the baker’s stomach disappeared and he grinned. “Good, dinner’s probably ready and I bet you’re hungry, you didn’t eat much this afternoon.”

Getting off the couch, Castiel went to the kitchen to check the casserole, Dean following behind him looking much more cheerful and eager for food. The food was ready so, after dishing out large portions for each of them and pouring some drinks, they settled on the couch to watch a movie. 

 

Two and a half movies later found them laying on the couch, mostly empty dinner plates and glasses sitting on the coffee table; Castiel was practically laying on top of Dean, his head burrowed into his boyfriend’s chest while he dozed off and on while staring mindlessly at the screen. Moving was the last thing on his mind at the moment despite how late is had to be. It suddenly occurred to him that the buzzing noise interrupting the soft sounds of the movie was Dean snoring.

“Dean,” he murmured softly, lifting his head and shaking the sleeping man’s shoulder. “Dean, you fell asleep.”

With a surprised snort, Dean jerked awake and mumbled blearily, “Shit, I guess I was more tired than I thought.” He shifted underneath Castiel, indicating he wanted to sit up.

The baker reluctantly slid off of his makeshift pillow and stretched his arms over his head, popping his spine. Dean did the same, groaning softly at the stretch; he rubbed at his face. “I guess I better get going.”

He attempted to stand but stumbled in his drowsy state; Castiel grabbed his arm as he walked by. “I don’t think so,” he protested. Dean looked at him questioningly. “You’re so tired you can barely walk straight, let alone drive. You can stay here tonight.”

Dean’s response was to giggle goofily, “Ha, jokes on you, I never walk straight.” 

He tried to walk again and, while he did slip out of the baker’s grip, he ended up smacking his shin on the coffee table. A few minutes later, after the air was clear of the plethora of color curses aimed at Castiel’s living room furniture, Dean reluctantly agreed that driving might not be such a good idea. He texted Sam, the only one who would still be awake at his house the other man explained, so that his parents would know where he was. Apparently Dean’s parents weren’t very invasive when it came to his personal life but they did like to know that he was somewhere safe for the night if he wasn’t home.

That bit of business being done, Castiel led Dean back to his room and into the bathroom and gave the other man one of the spare toothbrushes he kept under the counter; he’d learned over the years that toothbrushes tended to fall onto the floor, in the trashcan or into the toilet at the most inopportune moments so the baker always had a few on hand.

They were in the middle of brushing their teeth, standing side by side in front of the sink while Castiel enjoyed the domesticity of the whole thing when Dean gave him a big toothpaste drenched kiss.

“Haha, very funny,” he said, his face scrunched up at the feeling of gooey foam on his face. He reached up to wipe his cheek and saw Dean looking at him with a satisfied smirk on his own face while he finished brushing his teeth. “You’re quite the dork when you’re sleepy aren’t you”

“Sure am sweetcheeks,” Dean replied smugly after rinsing his mouth. He pressed a much drier kiss to Castiel’s cheek.

They finished up in the bathroom and went back into Castiel’s bedroom. The baker began crawling into bed and noticed Dean hesitate at the edge of the mattress.

“Dean, it’s past midnight, you’re exhausted and I’ve seen your dick already,” Castiel groaned tiredly, stopping the protest about their sleeping arrangements before Dean could fully open his mouth. Dean still didn’t move to get into bed, “I promise your virtue is safe, I don’t have the energy to ravish you at the moment. Now, get into bed and go to sleep.”

His boyfriend blushed and finally slipped under the comforter; Castiel wasted no time and immediately drew the other man back against his chest. Surprisingly enough Dean didn’t protest being the little spoon and instead burrowed back even more, sighing contentedly once he was settled. Castiel enjoyed the solid feeling of Dean in his arms and the sound and movement of the other man’s breathing as he settled down.

He was definitely looking forward to more of this in the future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo-hoo, another chapter and it's only been two days; I really am on a roll now!  
> I may have rushed this one a bit considering how worried some of you were after the sort of cliffhanger at the end of the last chapter and I didn't want to leave you guys hanging. I hope this makes up for the slight heart attack from last chapter. :)


	18. Chapter 18

The first thing that Dean thought when he began to drift awake the next morning was that he must have somehow fallen asleep at the foot of his bed; this was the only way to explain that the sunlight from his windows shining in his eyes. The second thing he noticed that quickly eclipsed the first mystery was the fact that his nose was being tickled by a nest of messy dark hair. His brain struggled to put these pieces of random information together in its fuzzy state for a few minutes before his memory helpfully supplied the answer.

He was laying in Cas’ bed and had spent the night. The warm mass at his front was his boyfriend.

Not feeling the need to move out of the comfortable position he awoke to find himself in, Dean buried his face in the back of Cas’ neck and replayed last night’s events, smiling to himself. Cas said that they could make it work; he didn’t have to worry about going back to school anymore. 

Well, at least not as much. 

He was going to have to worry about a few things, like downloading Skype and figuring out how to use it, but not about whether Cas was going to decide to dump his ass since they were going to be hours apart for the next several months. A large weight had been taken off his shoulders and it felt like he could breathe properly for the first time in days.

Sighing happily he pressed a soft kiss to the back of Cas’ head, being careful not to wake the other man up. They must have shifted places during the night because Dean distinctly remembered falling asleep with a strong arm draped over his waist and a broad chest against his back. Suddenly the man in front of him shifted and Dean froze, thinking that he’d disturbed his boyfriend, but Cas just murmured in his sleep and pressed himself back into Dean. This was slightly unfortunate as his put the baker’s ass right against Dean’s crotch thereby reminding the mechanic that other parts of him were much more awake than the rest of him.

Dean closed his eyes and took a deep breath; he could handle this. All he had to do was put a little space between his more...sensitive areas and Cas’ ass and he would be all set to savor laying in bed with his boyfriend some more without embarrassing himself. He held his breath and slowly started to shift his hips backwards slightly but to his horror, Cas moved too.

 _Dammit!_ he thought to himself. Figuring he had a bit more room to maneuver, Dean tried again only to have Cas’s hips follow. This time they collided firmly with his and Dean couldn’t help the grunt that slipped out at the sensation. Huffing a breath he began preparing to move again when he noticed that Cas’ breathing had changed.

“Cas…” Dean said, eyeing the bed head in front of him suspiciously, “You’re awake, aren’t you?”

“Nope, not all,” came the amused rumble, “You just continue trying to disguise the fact that you have morning wood.” Dean was scowling at the back of his boyfriend’s head when he spoke again, “I can feel you pouting at me.”

The baker shifted so he was still in Dean’s arms but facing him; their noses were only a few inches apart. “Well, that wasn’t a very nice thing you were doing there so you deserve it,” Dean argued.

Cas smiled at him impishly and slid his hand up and down Dean’s side before resting it on his hip, his thumb rubbing at the skin above the mechanic’s boxers where his t-shirt had ridden up. “Oh I don’t know, I think what I was trying to do was very nice,” Cas said as he leaned forward to lazily kiss what he could reach of Dean’s neck from the angle he was at. “Or at least it would have been if you hadn’t kept squirming.”

“Well, I kind of had to,” Dean countered, closing his eyes and enjoying the feel of Cas’ lips on his skin. When his boyfriend pulled away to raise an eyebrow questioningly, he continued, “What? I did. I wasn’t going to rub my junk on you while you were sleeping. That’s just rude or something.”

Cas rolled him over onto his back and settled on top of him, continuing his ministrations. Dean rested his hands on the other man’s hips and slipped his fingers under the hem of his t-shirt; the skin he found there was hot from sleep and when he danced his fingers over it, Cas squirmed and grunted.

“Hmm...ticklish are we?” he hummed, repeating the action causing his boyfriend to wriggle again and stop nibbling at the skin of his exposed collarbone. Dean tickled him again, chuckling when Cas glared at him. “Not fun being teased is it Cas?”

It was then that Dean realized he had made a strategic error. 

It probably wasn’t a good idea to antagonize Cas considering the other man was currently in a position that would make it very easy to put Dean at his mercy.

Unfortunately, in the split second these thoughts flashed through Dean’s mind, he saw an evil glint come into those blue eyes and knew that he was screwed. Maybe if he grovelled…

“Now, Cas…” was all he was able to get out before his boyfriend started his assault.

There was a rustle of blankets as Cas immediately moved to pin Dean to the bed, tangling their legs together and grabbing his arms so he could pin them over Dean’s head. Once this had been accomplished, the baker began his attack on the mechanic’s exposed, sensitive sides. Dean yelped and squirmed, trying to escape but the wiry man on top of him was much stronger than he appeared and kept him firmly trapped beneath him. 

“S-stop, come on Cas! I’m sorry for ti-ckling you, I d-didn’t mean it,” Dean gasped out, trying to work his legs free but not finding any success. Grovelling was the only way to get out of this.

“Say uncle,” Cas sang in response, letting up on his torture for a brief second before redoubling his efforts. He was smirking down smugly as he poked and prodded. “Say uncle and I’ll let you go.”

Knowing when he was beat, Dean folded like a house of cards under the onslaught of dancing fingers up his sides and under his arms. “Uncle! Uncle!” he cried breathlessly.

True to his word, the other man stopped tickling him but Cas made no move to get off of Dean. Instead they laid there, just looking at each other and that was was when Dean realized that all that squirming and wriggling around had aggravated his earlier problem. He blushed as the same realization passed over Cas’ face before his boyfriend smirked again. The other man ground his hips down onto the growing bulge in his underwear which alerted Dean to the fact that he wasn’t alone in being affected by all this squirming and moving around. Dean gasped when the other man began toying with his nipples through his shirt while continuing to writhe on top of him. 

“Have I ever told you just how much I love how sensitive you are?” Cas said between the kisses he was placing on Dean’s jaw. Dean attempted to press up into his boyfriend in hopes of finding a bit of friction but found that Cas now had a firm grip on his hips and was pinning him to the mattress. “Mmm...somebody’s frisky this morning.”

Dean abandoned his attempt to pull Cas’ hips down to his own and instead brought his arms up to drag the other man’s mouth down. “You started it,” Dean murmured, cutting off any response with a kiss. He wasted no time in prodding Cas’ lips open so he could explore his boyfriend’s mouth; Cas hummed happily and cupped his face.

They made out leisurely, hands exploring each other unhurriedly. Cas began rocking his hips again causing Dean to inhale sharply as his forgotten hard on was brought back to his attention. He spread his legs so the other man fit snugly between them and then, while Cas was occupied with nipping at his jaw, he hooked a leg around his boyfriend so he could grind against him properly. They both groaned loudly at the friction and their movements grew more purposeful.

“How do you want it?” Cas mumbled in his ear before kissing down his neck then back up to whisper, “Do you want me to suck you off or do you want this?” The baker illustrated what he mean with a few well placed grinding motions with his hips which sent a myriad of sparks down Dean’s spine. “Or maybe this?” Dean felt Cas prop himself up a bit and then a hand slip under the waistband of his boxers to wrap around his throbbing length, giving it a long slow stroke that had Dean’s head falling back as he moaned at how good it felt. 

Gathering what little of his wits that remained, Dean gave him his answer.

“I want you to fuck me.”

Cas pulled away and looked down at him, his face a mix of surprise and concern with a bit of tempered lust thrown in. He brushed a thumb across Dean’s cheek bone softly. “Dean, are you sure? We don’t have to do that yet if you’re not ready.”

They had already discussed the less than abundant experience that Dean had. The mechanic wasn’t a virgin but they’d agreed to take things a bit slow. But after last night, knowing that Cas was willing to put up with a long distance relationship to be together, made Dean’s mind up. He wanted to be with Cas at least once before he went back to school and what better time than after their first night sleeping together?

“Yes I’m sure,” Dean said reassuringly, meeting Cas eyes so he knew that he was serious. “I promise that I’m okay.” He leaned in and gave the baker a lingering kiss before pulling away. “Now, are you going to fuck me or not?” he asked with a grin.

The baker smiled back at him, his eyes filled with lust. “Of course, Dean, whatever you want.”

The blankets were pushed aside, exposing them to the slightly chilly air, chilly at least when compared to the heat generated from their earlier wrestling match and subsequent make out session. Cas’ hands flew down to the hem of Dean’s shirt and swiftly removed it while the mechanic returned the favor. Dean took a moment to admire the way all the golden skin this action revealed practically glowed in the morning sunlight that streamed through the windows before pressing a few open mouthed kisses to the other man’s collarbone. 

Meanwhile Cas busied himself with the task of sliding Dean’s underwear down his hips and, after a helpful lifting of said hips from Dean, pulling them off his legs; Dean gasped against the skin of Cas’ shoulder where he was working on the start of a hickie as the cooler air of the room hit his sensitive skin. It didn’t take long for Cas to join him in being completely naked. 

Dean opened his legs invitingly so the other man could settle between them after rummaging through the bedside drawer for what they would need. There was a slight flutter of nerves in Dean’s stomach while Cas was preoccupied with the drawer but it evaporated immediately once his boyfriend was sprawled between his legs again, kissing him for all he was worth. 

“If you need to stop, tell me; no matter how far along we are, we’ll stop,” Cas said, making sure Dean was looking at him. He didn’t make a move to continue until nodded and even then, the baker went back to nuzzling Dean’s neck and running his hands up and down his sides. “Relax, Dean. I’m not going to go any further until you’re ready.” 

The baker rose up onto his knees and nudged Dean until he rolled onto his stomach. Once he was settled Cas straddled him and started massaging his back and shoulders, causing Dean to release the tension that he hadn’t even realized was there. He groaned loudly into the pillow he was clutching under his head. 

“Wow, that’s amazing,” Dean sighed as his boyfriend methodically turned him into a pool of mush. He heard the other man chuckle.

“Guess kneading bread all day has its advantages,” Cas replied, rubbing at a particularly tense area on his lower back. 

Dean’s smart remark about being jealous of bread was wiped from his mind as Cas moved to the side and snaked his hand underneath to grip Dean’s hard on; Dean lifted his hips just enough to give his boyfriend room to stroke him properly. He briefly registered the sound of Cas opening the bottle of lube but was too caught up in the skillful movement of his boyfriend’s hand, stroking and twisting just right, which meant the press of slick fingers in his ass startled him slightly. 

Cas hushed him soothingly, pressing kisses to his spine and redoubled his efforts at jerking Dean off thereby distracting him from the burning stretch as he was slowly worked open. All Dean was aware of what the throbbing heat in his lower belly that was begging to be taken care of.

Several minutes later found Dean rocking back and forth between Cas’ hands, panting slightly at the effort and the sensation of fingers inside him dancing lightly over that area that made pleasant shivers shoot down his spine. That and the feel of a hand slowly and deliberately jerking his cock. Unable to keep quiet, he moaned into the pillow as he thrust his hips forward and then sliding his hips back languidly. Dean turned his head and looked back at his boyfriend as best he could.

“I’m good Cas,” he panted eagerly, emphasizing his point by grinding back onto the other man’s hand, “Fuck me please.”

To Dean’s relief, Cas didn’t need a second invitation or ask for any more reassurances that he was okay with this. Dean craned his neck to watch as he removed his fingers and rolled a condom onto his cock which was hard and dripping, letting loose a soft groan that gave Dean a shiver as he did so. In a blink of an eye Dean felt the baker’s hands guiding his hips down onto the bed, spreading his legs and then the tip of Cas’ dick nudging at his ass. 

They both moaned as Cas slowly sank inside, Dean tangled his fingers in the sheets tightly while the other man gripped at his hips. Soon his boyfriend’s hips were flush against his ass and they paused, panting and gasping as they both adjusted. 

“Ready?” the baker murmured in his ear, running his hands up and down Dean’s sides soothingly. Dean nodded frantically and, propping himself on his forearms, turned his head so that Cas could answer his wordless request for a kiss as the other man started to slowly thrust in and out.

Cas broke the kiss after a while and moved to pepper Dean’s shoulders with open mouthed kisses, leaving Dean to gasp and moan into the sheets as the thrusts from the baker’s hips not only lit him up from the inside but caused friction between the mattress and his aching cock. 

If Dean’s mind wasn’t preoccupied by thoughts on how best to move his hips so that not only could he get more of the delicious tingling feeling in his groin as well as how to draw more sighing gasps and deep groans out of Cas, he would have been embarrassed at how loud he was being. Every twist and thrust of Cas’ hips had him moaning and keening into the bed.

“Oh fuck, Cas,” he groaned after a particularly satisfying grind from his boyfriend that translated in his own hips being dragged across the sheets in one of the best ways possible but he needed more. “Feels so good, hold me down and fuck me harder.”

The baker groaned and obliged him by moving from his hands to his elbows so they were pressed together, their hot, sweat slicked skin rubbed together as they writhed on Cas’ soft bed. Cas began to buck his hips up harder while proceeding to nip and suck at the skin of Dean’s shoulder; Dean shot an arm back to thread his fingers through the sweaty hair at the base of his boyfriend’s neck when the other man hit the hot spot in the crook of his shoulder. Humming in response to the touch, Cas apparently got the message and set up shop there, working on the start of a hickie, but never pausing in the devastating rhythm he’d established. 

“Is this what you wanted baby?” Cas rumbled in his ear, pausing in his work on Dean’s neck. The mechanic panted out a frantic ‘yes’ as the coil of pleasure in his groin tightened and tightened; his boyfriend chuckled before continuing, “I bet you’ve thought about this, alone in your room at night. I know I have. All by myself in this big bed of mine, thinking about how’d look under me. The reality is so much hotter than anything I could imagine and,” the movement of his hips slowed to an agonizingly slow roll that held Dean gasping and teetering at edge, “The real thing is so much better than my hand.”

And that was it, game over. 

Images of Cas laying naked in bed, desperately fucking up into his fist and panting out Dean’s name were too much and Dean cried out as his body exploded with pulsing waves of heat. Cas continued to rut against him, his movements getting rougher and more erratic as Dean clenched around him and three hard thrusts later, he came with a groan, his teeth clamping down on Dean’s shoulder.

Cas collapsed onto Dean but the mechanic didn’t mind; the solid weight of his boyfriend was comforting as he came down from the high. They lay there, letting their breathing slow, until the alternatingly warm and cool cycle of the baker’s breath on Dean’s skin caused him to shiver; the warmth at his back disappeared and was replaced by a comforter. The baker crawled out of bed to dispose of the condom and disappeared into the bathroom only to return a few seconds later with a warm rag and a towel. Much to Dean’s displeasure, Cas made him roll onto his back so that he could clean up the mess under him and lay down the towel over the wet spot. Once the cleanup was done, Cas crawled into bed and arranged them so that Dean was on his chest, the blankets pulled over them.

“How do you feel?” Cas asked after a little while, his voice showed a bit of worry, “I didn’t hurt you at all did I?”

Dean shook his head as much as he was able without moving from his spot on Cas’ chest and smiled. “No, you didn’t hurt me,” he answered truthfully, turning to look up at the baker, “In fact, you just may have rocked my world, babe.”

The other man craned his neck so he could meet Dean’s eyes, there was a determined smirk on his face. “Only may have?” he said incredulously, “I must be slipping, I’ll just have to up my game for round two.”

Just as Dean was about to make a teasing remark about having to wait and see when his brain registered something important. It was late morning on a Saturday.

“Cas!” Dean exclaimed as he bolted up right, looking at the alarm clock “It’s after ten, what about the shop?”

The startled look on the baker’s face changed to a look of relief and then smug amusement. He reached up and grasped Dean’s bare shoulder so he could pull him down to the bed, rearranging them back to the way they were before. “I woke up earlier this morning, texted Gabriel and told him I wouldn’t be in today before going back to sleep,” the other man explained, brushing his hand up and down Dean’s arm. “He knows what to do and I already had the prep work done for everything yesterday. I’m going to get teased mercilessly considering it’ll be obvious from your car why I wasn’t in but you’re most definitely worth it.” He concluded this by kissing Dean on the cheek. 

Wheels turned in Dean’s mind as he processed this information. “So we can lay around in bed all morning?” he asked eagerly, already planning on how to spend the time.

Cas chuckled, obviously getting what Dean meant, “All morning and all afternoon if you want.”

“Good,” Dean replied contentedly, pulling the comforter up around his shoulders before wrapping his arms around Cas “Because we are definitely going to do that again after a nice nap.”

His boyfriend smiled and kissed him on the head before he too settled back down onto the mattress. “That sounds like an extremely good plan.”

Within minutes they were both fast asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to take a moment to thank everyone who has been keeping up with this story and commenting and generally being awesome. You guys have no idea how much the positive feedback means to me. I work at a very frustrating and thank-less job where I spend my day trying to make sure all my work meets certain requirements but I constantly fall short because I have to rely on other people who aren't made to meet the same requirements and my work suffers for it. And some days it gets to be too much but then I check my email on my lunch break and find emails telling me that people have liked my stories or that someone left a lovely comment on my work and it reminds me that there are other things to life than working at a job where my work isn't appreciated. This means the world to me and I just wanted all you lovely readers to know that. So thank you again and as always, thanks for reading.


	19. Chapter 19

“I’m going to miss this.”

Castiel craned his neck to look down at Dean who was apparently doing his best to meld into the baker’s torso. They were laying in Dean’s bed, burrowed under the covers with Dean sprawled over his chest; Castiel had just been about to drift off when he was jolted back awake by the other man speaking. He idly ran a hand up and down the soft material of the t-shirt covering Dean’s back.

“Hmm...what was that?” he hummed sleepily, his fuzzy brain not quite registering what had been said. It had to be pretty late by his reckoning so it was surprising that Dean was still completely awake especially considering what a busy day it had been.

The two of them had spent most of the day packing Dean’s things for school in preparation for move-in weekend at the college, something that had creeped up on them with surprising swiftness in Castiel’s opinion; it seemed like only a few hours had passed since they had spent that lazy day tangled in his bed sheets, exploring one another and just enjoying each other’s presence. But the fact of the matter was that tomorrow they would be packing up all of the boxes and bags they’d put together today into the Impala and John’s truck and taking Dean back to school.

Castiel had never gone to college or really known anyone who had; Gabriel ran off to explore the world as soon as he was freed from the chains of the public school system, Meg had gone to online school for medical coding so she could work at home and have a schedule that worked around her less than predictable social life and any friends he had made in highschool that had gone on to higher education hadn’t been close enough to him to involve him in the actual process so he hadn't had a clue what to expect when Dean asked if he could help him pack. The idea that Dean needed to take enough possessions to live for a significant amount of time at a place several hours away hadn’t really registered until he saw the large pile of clothes, books, bedding and other items that they had slowly assembled over the course of the day. 

“Do you really need to take this much stuff?” he’d asked, somewhat awestruck, as Dean had added his desk lamp, sans light bulb, to a box his boyfriend had so lovingly labeled ‘desk shit’. 

Dean had responded with a grunt of confirmation before explaining, “The dorms at school aren’t much more than a square room with a slightly larger than average twin bed and a desk for you and your roommate, Cas.” The other man had paused in the middle of closing up the box, looking pensive. “Though I will count myself lucky that they come with their own bathroom so I guess a plain room is a small price to pay to avoid communal bathrooms.” This last phrase had been accompanied by an exaggerated shudder which Castiel had laughed at but in all honestly he couldn’t blame his boyfriend

Sharing a bathroom with Gabriel had been horrible enough, he couldn’t contemplate cohabitating with tens times that many people.

“You do make a good point, so how much more is there to box up?” Castiel had inquired as he stacked a plastic crate full of notebooks onto the pile. Dean had quieted for a moment, his eyes fixed on the ceiling and his lips moving silently as he had gone over his internal list.

The other man had looked over at the stack of items and grinned, “Actually, we’re pretty much done,” he’d replied happily. Dean had put his box next to the door and walked back to flop on his bed. “The rest is stuff like toothpaste and shampoo and I’m not doing anything with that until after I get around tomorrow.” That having been said, he’d propped himself up on his elbows, a predatory look on his face. “We have the rest of tonight all to ourselves.”

Castiel had rolled his eyes at the blatant hint and shaken his head, unable to stop the grin that had crept across face. “I didn’t say I would spend the night tonight so that we could mess around while your parents and brother are sleeping two doors down,” the baker had said dryly and walked over to kiss the pretend pout gracing Dean’s mouth. “Besides,” he’d continued onc he had put enough space between them so he could talk, his voice had deepened slightly and he’d looked Dean in the eye pointedly, “I’m surprised you would would be up for another round, considering how...strenuous the packing at my apartment had been this afternoon.”

This had caused his boyfriend to chuckle warmly as they’d both reminisced about how thorough Castiel had been when he’d given Dean a ‘proper sendoff’ when they had gone over the baker’s apartment under the guise of collecting some things Dean had left there. 

Dean had reluctantly agreed that fooling around with his parents in earshot wasn’t a very good idea and offered an evening of pizza and movies in bed instead, a proposition that Castiel had agreed to immediately. They’d spent the rest of the night vegetating until the baker had strongly suggested they go to bed since they had an early day tomorrow so they’d turned off the lights and curled up together in Dean’s bed.

 

That had been quite awhile ago if Castiel’s internal clock was accurate and from what he could tell, Dean hadn’t slept a wink which was surprising to him considering their activities at his apartment, which had gotten surprisingly athletic at times, and the simple fact that packing was actually tiring. 

Sighing lightly, Castiel shuffled up slightly so he could look down properly. “Are you freaking out about the long distance relationship thing again?” He squinted in the dark critically, trying to see Dean’s expression.

Huffing a short laugh, Dean shook his head as much as he was able without removing it from Castiel’s chest. “No, it’s not that. I just realized just how much I’m going to miss this getting to sleep with you thing,” he mumbled before sighing, “I know we don’t do it that often but it’s not going to happen like at all and that just sucks.”

Castiel couldn’t quite tell from this angle but he was sure there was a bit of a pout on Dean’s face. He kissed the top of Dean’s head, tightening his arm around his boyfriend. “College isn’t prison Dean, I can come and stay the night sometimes,” the baker reminded him, “And you do get to come home every once and awhile, unless your professors are going to chain you to your desk or something.” 

Deciding to brighten the mood when his boyfriend’s only response was gloomy silence, Castiel shifted slightly to meet Dean’s gaze and adopted an expression of mock worry, “Oh good lord, they’re going to hold you captive aren’t they? Don’t worry sweetheart, I’ll save you.” He then proceeded to wrap both arms around his boyfriend tight enough for the other man to squawk in a rather loudly. “They won’t take you from me without a fight.”

Dean wriggled against his hold, laughing as quietly as he could considering it was the middle of the night. “Let me go,” he grumbled, his serious tone at odds with the big grin on his face. After a few moments of struggling, Castiel let him go.

“You’re a big dork, you know that Cas?” Dean said shaking his head. They settled back down and righted the covers which had been tossed to the end of the bed during their little scuffle. Castiel made a face at the comment.

“Takes one to know one,” he shot back playfully, “Now go to sleep, we’re going need to be up in a couple of hours and we don’t need grumpy Dean showing up. He can be a bit of a pain.”

This earned him a light slap on the chest and a half-hearted glare but it didn’t stop Dean from curling up against him and finally falling asleep.

 

“Everything ready to go?” John asked as they stood in the Winchester’s driveway the next morning. The Impala and the truck were all packed, neatly despite Dean’s attempts to just throw everything in willy nilly. Mary had made sure everyone had had a good breakfast and now it was time to get a move on.

Dean nodded from his place next to Castiel’s bike. John would be driving the Impala while Mary and Sam followed along in the truck, leaving Dean to ride with his boyfriend. 

“I think Dad wants to give us one last bit of alone time before I go back,” Dean had muttered in his ear this morning when John had given the run down of who was driving what while they ate breakfast. Apparently Dean’s father was a planner and liked to make sure everything was in order, most likely an old habit from being in the military. “He’s very invested in our relationship, likes to brag about how he’s the one who set us up.” 

“He’d probably be a bit depressed if he knew that it was actually a lack of a wet floor sign that really did the trick,” Castiel had muttered back, causing Dean to choke slightly on a piece of Mary’s delicious waffles as the other man laughed at the memory of that fateful day in the cafe.

Fatherly motivations aside, the driving arrangements had been made and Castiel would be the last person to argue with a plan that allowed him to clock more time on his bike with Dean. John had said the two of them could drive ahead if they wanted as long as they were at the dorm around the same time the rest of them were since ‘we aren’t going to unload all your crap while you lollygag Dean.’

“Ready to ride, buttercup?” the baker asked the other man, grinning cheekily before swinging his leg over the bike; Dean wrinkled his nose at the nickname, decidedly not one of his favorites which is why Castiel made sure to use it.

Apparently Dean decided to ignore the pet name, choosing instead to slip on his helmet and settle down on the Harley behind Castiel. The baker put on his own helmet and started his bike. He felt his boyfriend’s arms wrap around his waist as the other man pressed himself tightly to his back. The baker maneuvered the Harley out of the driveway, vaguely aware that the rest of the Winchester convoy followed behind, and in no time at all he and Dean were roaring down the highway.

As he skillfully handled the motorcycle through the mildly heavy traffic on the freeway, Castiel grinned stupidly underneath his full face helmet.

This, this was one of the simple joys in life.

Flying down the highway on his bike, Dean pressed up against him in the best of ways...the only thing that kept this from being the perfect moment was the fact they had a specific destination and a deadline more or less. It occurred to him that he never did get a chance to grab Dean and hit the road for a day, nothing to do but ride around with no clear plan or destination, just the two of them, his Harley and all the time in the world. He added this highly attractive plan to his mental to do list.

The time and the miles seemed to fly by and much quicker than Castiel would have thought, they were slowing to a stop in front of the building Dean had indicated was his dorm. It was a large brick building, built plain and sturdy like most of the other building that the baker had seen on campus as they’d leisurely rolled through. 

Castiel was a bit shocked at just how many people were moving around on the crowd choked sidewalks. What had to be hundreds of people scurried back and forth from cars and trucks, laden down with various bits and pieces like what he and Dean had packed while people who he assumed worked for the university ran around trying to help them and keep order.

It was, in his humble non-college educated opinion, chaos.

“It’s not nearly as bad as it looks,” Dean’s voice said, pulling him back to reality. He turned to see that the other man had taken of his helmet and was holding it as his hip, looking at him with a smug expression that said Castiel wasn’t hiding his amazement very well. Dean walked over to stand next to him and look up at the building. “Once we start moving everything in, you’ll fall into the rhythm and it’ll feel like you’ve been doing it all your life.”

“I find that hard to believe,” he replied skeptically, eyeing a gaggle of girls who were attempting to fit what was very obviously too much stuff into a little bin on wheels that he assumed was meant to assist in getting student’s belongings into the building easier. His hands twitched involuntarily as he saw the bin start to tip but before he could even shout a warning, there was a loud thud as it crashed to the side. “Hopefully that won’t happen to us,” Castiel continued, nodding at the group who were scowling as they began picking up the scattered items.

Dean chuckled and began pulling him by the arm towards the dorm, typing on his phone with the other. “No, that won’t be us since I have the art of packing one of these bad boys down to a science,” his boyfriend replied, patting one of the grey bins on the side soundly. He began rolling it down the sidewalk and motioned for Castiel to follow, “I just texted Sam, he says they’re parked down at the other end. They couldn’t get any closer so it looks like we’ve got a bit of walking to do.”

A bit of a walk was an understatement. It turns out that the Winchesters had to park in the parking lot in front of an entirely different dorm. They made their way over as quickly as they could considering the crowd and found John and Sam pilling various crates on the ground. Filling the cart didn’t take long but Dean did seem to have a plan and, to the baker’s novice eyes, it did look like he was able to fit quite a lot in the little cart so soon the group was headed back towards Dean’s dorm; Sam and Dean pushed the bin while John, Mary and Castiel each grabbed something to carry so that only one more trip would be needed to move everything in.

They made their way into the building and after waiting a bit for other people to go first, into the elevator; Dean’s room was on the second floor. When the elevator doors opened, they revealed a long hallway that was bristling with just as much activity as the sidewalk out front. Students wandered up and down the halls, chatting with each other and carrying their things around, trying to get situated. Some of them called out greetings to Dean, who responded in kind, usually with a big grin on his face and a promise to talk later. 

Finally locating Dean’s room, the cart was parked just outside the door while John and Mary walked into the room to deposit their armloads.

“Alright then,” John said, a little breathless from carrying a box of Dean’s textbooks, “Dean, you and your mom start unloading this bin while Sam, Cas and I got get the last of your stuff. I think between us three strapping men we can get the rest without another bin.”

Dean protested at his not being included in the category of ‘strapping’ but moved grudgingly to arrange his things on his side of the room.

Leaving the other two to it, Castiel, Sam and John made quick work of walking back to the cars and grabbing the last couple boxes; the walk back took a bit longer as there seemed to be even more people showing up to set up their rooms. It was so crowded that Castiel decided to take the slightly less crowded stairs up to Dean’s room instead of waiting for the elevator like Sam and John.

He was panting a bit more that he’d have wanted to admit and his legs were burning slightly by the time he made it up the stairs with his cargo but he easily caught his breath on the walk down the hall. When he made it to Dean’s door he noticed that Mary was gone and Dean was making his bed. 

Grinning to himself, Castiel carefully placed his box down, being sure not to make a noise that would reveal his presence and snuck over to were Dean was sprawled on the bed. His head was tucked down in the space between the wall and mattress as if looking for something he dropped. The baker sidled over silently and, without warning, soundly smacked Dean’s denim clad ass as he declared loudly, “Your strapping man has returned Dean,” hoping to spook his boyfriend even more. 

But instead of the now well known yelp that Castiel had come to expect a deep southern voice rumbled out, “What the hell?”

The shocked baker barely had time to register that the ass that his hand was currently resting on was slightly larger than the one he was used to when Dean’s voice sounded behind him from the doorway.

“Uh, Cas? Why are you groping my roommate’s ass?”

_Whoops_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, it took me about a month but here's another chapter. I'd been fighting with this one trying to find a natural route to introducing Dean's roommate (I'll give you three guesses who it is ;) ) but nothing seemed right. Then I realized, we haven't had an awkward moment for a while so....a case of mistaken ass-identity was born. Just a little disclaimer, while I did go to college, I lived at home so I never experienced a move-in weekend so I'm basing the move-in madness on what the Wal-mart near the college looked like during that weekend (I'm never making that mistake again, haha) and the actual dorm room on my friend's room (it was pretty bare considering how much she was shelling out for it in my opinion). Anywho, since I'm already working on the next chapter, hopefully you'll be hearing from me soon. Thanks for reading :)


	20. Chapter 20

Coming back from showing his mom the dorm’s small kitchen area to the sight of Cas standing next to his roommate with one hand firmly on said roommate’s ass was unexpected to say the least.

A small part of him was pissed, what the hell was his boyfriend groping someone who was not named Dean Winchester? But going from Cas’ double take towards the door and the look of surprise that morphed immediately into absolute horror as the other man looked down at his hand and realized that that ass did not in fact belong to who he’d obviously assumed it did.

“Dean!” Cas exclaimed, his usually deep voice sounded strangely high pitched in his terror, as he walked over to him, wringing his hands anxiously, “I--I thought--you--on your bed--I didn’t know---”

His boyfriend continued to babble incoherently as he rushed over to where Dean stood by the door. Dean reached up to grab the other man’s shoulders, trying to tell him to calm down and take a breath.

“What I think your man is trying to say is he didn’t know that you weren’t the one on your bed when he decided to smack me on the ass,” Benny’s voice drawled from further in the room, interrupting Cas’ desperate groveling. 

Dean looked over his boyfriend’s shoulder to see his friend and roommate Benny looking at the pair of them with an amused expression, arms crossed over his barrel of a chest, while Cas’ face seemed to pale and flush at the same time as he winced at Benny’s succinct, and apparently accurate, summary of events.

Benny walked over to the two of them and slapped Cas firmly on the shoulder, smirking slightly when the baker twitched though Dean thought this reaction wasn’t about the contact but more about the reminder of his boyfriend’s extremely recent embarrassment. “Don’t sweat it, man,” he said jovially, “Everyone makes mistakes, even strapping men.” 

There was a slight tremor of laughter in his friend’s voice at this last phrase; Dean raised a questioning eyebrow at Cas, silently asking about the ‘strapping man’ comment. Cas immediately took on a shifty air under Dean’s scrutiny; it was obvious that there was a bit more to this already very strange incident.

Nervously licking his lips, his boyfriend spoke haltingly, “I may...I may have yelled..um..’Your strapping man has returned’ when I...slapped your roommate’s ass.” One of the other man’s hands came up to rub at the back of his neck which was somehow flushing even more.

This reluctant confession was the final straw and the small bubbles of laughter that Dean had been trying to keep contained for the Cas’ sake burst out of him before he could even try to stop them.

Dean roared with laughter, clutching his stomach as images of Cas waltzing into his room, grinning that devilish grin that he knew so well, and confidently smacking a complete stranger on their ass flashed through his mind; his peals of laughter were soon joined by Benny’s deep rumbling laugh. Cas looked on with a pout though a slight grudging smile was toying around at the corner of his boyfriend’s mouth, leading Dean to believe that despite his mortification at the situation, the baker thought all this was funny too. 

“Yes, yes, laugh it up Dean,” Cas said drily, crossing his arms over his chest and looking at him and Benny with a forced air of nonchalance. “Are you going to introduce me so I know whose ass I hit or what?”

Wiping at the tears in the corner of his eyes, Dean stood up trying to get his breath back. Cas did have a point. He looked over to see Benny slowly starting to get himself under control and patted the other man firmly on the shoulder. “Cas, this is my friend Benny,” he said when he was finally able to speak, “Benny, this is Cas, my apparently strapping man of a boyfriend.”

To emphasize this information, Dean wrapped his arm around Cas’ waist and pulled him in; he hoped the contact would help break his boyfriend out of the pout he’d adopted in response to his and Benny’s teasing. The dark haired man came close easy enough which Dean took as a good sign so he surreptitiously slid a hand in the baker’s back pocket. 

“If that smack was anything to go by, I’d have to say there’s some truth to that, brother,” Benny replied, shooting a joking wink at the baker when they shook hands. Cas, to his credit, rolled with the teasing and nodded cordially. “Now, not to seem rude, but I’ve got to run to the registrar’s office,” the burly man continued once he’d release Cas’ hand. He jerked a thumb towards the door, “So I’m going to head out, it was nice meeting you Cas. I’ll see you later, brother.”

With that, Benny was out the door, leaving the two of them alone. There was a beat of silence before Dean started chuckling again, releasing Cas from his grip so he could press a hand to his aching belly muscles. The thought of his normally laid back and suave boyfriend meeting his friend and roommate under the circumstances they did was just too funny. Cas crossed his arms, looking decidedly unimpressed; he let the mechanic go for a few minutes before speaking up.

“Are you quite done?” he asked, walking over to sit on Dean’s bed. Dean wandered over and took a seat next to the baker.

“I might be,” he said, his attempts to be serious not only being thwarted by the odd chuckle here and there but by his swiftly dwindling attention span. Sitting next to the other man on the bed, Dean could feel Cas’ body heat and it was pulling him in like a magnet so that he began nosing at the curve of the baker’s neck.

Cas jerked in surprise at this but bared his neck slightly which Dean took as a sign to begin placing a few kisses here and there while hooking an arm around his boyfriend’s waist to draw them closer. 

“Dean--” Cas murmured, pushing half heartedly at his chest with one hand while his other came to rest on Dean’s thigh. “--your mother will be walking through that door any minute now, probably followed by your father and little brother.”

Undeterred, Dean rubbed a hand slowly down the other man’s back before slipping it underneath the hem of his shirt. “Come on Cas,” he hummed into his boyfriend’s ear, “Can’t I get one last little make out squeezed in here, it’s going to be forever until we’ll get to do this again.”

In the few seconds of ensuing silence Dean could practically feel the eyeroll Cas would have been directing his way if they were actually facing each other and his face wasn’t pressed to the baker’s neck so he could move down to nibble his collarbone.

“A few weeks isn’t forever Dean,” Cas said somewhat breathlessly, the rumble of his voice sent vibrations through Dean’s lips, “Besides, we’re all set up to Skype, we can video chat whenever.”

Dean felt a grin spread over his face at this statement and at the addition of Cas’ fingers in his hair. “Oh I can’t wait to have some Skype sex” he said, looking up at his boyfriend and flashing him a flirty smile. “I’m half tempted to kick you out now so that you can go home and Skype me and we can have naughty webcam time.”

Cas chuckled and shook his head at him as Dean wriggled his eyebrows suggestively.

The baker kissed along his jaw. “I’m sure we’ll have plenty of that without you hurrying it along,” he said before drawing Dean forward into another slow kiss.

The kiss stayed pretty chaste, at least by Dean’s standards, with only minimal hand wandering though Dean did note that Cas hand was awfully close to his crotch considering the other man’s worry at being walked in on by family members. Not one to waste an opportunity, Dean was just about to test the waters and see if he could get away with a bit of hands under his boyfriend’s shirt action when a voice at the door spooked him.

“Alright alright, break it up boys. I don’t need to be seeing that,” his mom said as she walked into the room, “Dean, this room is never going to get set up if you keep getting distracted.”

His mom shook her head and turned to start unboxing his books, placing them onto his small desk into a neat pile. Dean scowled as Cas gently untangled their arms and scooted off the bed so that the other man could get up and begin unbagging Dean’s blankets.

“Why am I the only one in trouble?” he protested while following his mom’s unspoken order to finish setting up his room by tossing clothes in his temporary dresser. “It takes two people to canoodle, Cas is guilty too.”

There was a huff of laughter to his left where the baker had started the task of making the bed that they had been sitting on a few moments ago; Dean found himself distracted from his planned remark in response Cas’ obvious amusement at his protest for a few seconds by the way the other man’s jeans pulled tight against his ass as he bent over to tuck the ends of the fitted sheet under the corners of the mattress. If it weren’t for the fact that his mom was in the room, he knew he wouldn’t have been able to resist the urge to make a dirty remark and he also knew if his mom hadn’t been in the room and they weren’t in a dorm room that was currently surrounded by hundreds of people, he couldn’t be held responsible for the shenanigans that would have taken place on his half-made bed.

He was pulled out of his fantasy by the sound of his mom chuckling. “Castiel is a good boy and I know my son,” she said matter of factly, turning to level a knowing look at him. “The evidence points to a simple fact, you were most likely the instigator.”

Apparently it was Cas’ turn to laugh at his boyfriend’s expense as the other man started chuckling quietly, shortly followed by his mom. In the meanwhile, Dean most definitely did not pout while his mom and boyfriend shared a laugh at him. He was too busy concentrating on organizing his clothes in the closet.

  


“I have to say, considering I’m someone who doesn’t typically like to go out to eat a lot, I’m very impressed with the food here.”

Dean looked up from his plate to see Cas munching on some fries, his expression thoughtful. After they had all finished setting up Dean’s room, his parents and Sam had said their goodbyes and left to head home though not before his mom had extracted her yearly promise to call every weekend from him. Cas had decided to stay a bit longer, an idea the Dean supported wholeheartedly for obvious reasons. 

They’d wandered around campus for a while after his family left so he could show Cas some of his favorite spots the most important, at least from his grumbling stomach’s perspective, being the college cafeteria. 

“Why is that surprising?” Dean asked, putting down his pizza. He watched as the other man picked up a few more fries and popped them into his mouth before he responded.

“Well,” Cas said, swallowing his mouthful of food and prodding his food. “I’ve always found that food in schools wasn’t very appetizing and I figured that would translate to college food so I’m more than a bit surprised at just how delicious this is.” He paused and look around at the multitude of serving windows and the different offerings of the buffet tables before turning back to Dean with a shrug. “And the fact that most of it seems to be healthy.”

Dean snorted in laughter, shaking his head fondly. “Only you would be geeking out over the healthy cafeteria food.” 

He reached down to pick up his neglected pizza slice, intent on settling back into stuffing his face when suddenly a fry hit him in the face but not from the direction that he would have expected.

“You’re one to talk Winchester, I distinctly remember you waxing poetic about the food here for at least a month your first semester here.”

There was a flurry of movement and suddenly Dean and Cas found themselves with a guest. Dean rolled his eyes as he took in the french fry thrower, tossing her projectile back at her halfheartedly.

“Yeah yeah, Charlie. Big talk coming from the chick who practically cried when she saw the computer lab.” he teased the red head, slapping at her hand when it darted out to pick a pepperoni off his plate. “Hands off, missy. Didn’t anybody ever tell you it’s rude to stick your fingers in people’s food?”

Using her other hand, Charlie grabbed Dean’s unguarded soda and took a long sip before responding. “Didn’t anyone tell you it was rude not to introduce your amazing best friend to dreamy table guests,” she fired back at him before looking over at Cas who was watching the proceedings with amusement, and holding out her hand. “Since obviously Dean has no manners...Hi, my name is Charlie, Dean’s fabulously awesome best friend.”

Cas smiled, his gaze flickering briefly across the table at Dean and shook her hand. “Hello Charlie, my name is Castiel, Dean’s fabulously awesome boyfriend.”

Charlie nodded in approval as she released the baker’s hand and patted him on the shoulder before looking over at Dean. “Oh, I like him.”

Rolling his eyes and shaking his head at his boyfriend, Dean finally picked up his pizza and took a bite. “He’s pretty popular with my friends apparently, just ask Benny,” he said, looking at Cas smugly, watching the baker’s satisfied grin morph into a slight pout. Charlie looked back and forth between them.

“Well there’s obviously a story here,” she said, leaning forward and bracing her elbows on the table while looking up expectantly. 

Despite really wanting to tease Cas some more, Dean looked at the other man questioningly just to make sure he was comfortable with him airing the baker’s embarrassing moment to someone who was basically a stranger to him. Cas, his cheeks flushed slightly in anticipated chagrin, nodded encouragingly and began to eat his fries again. 

Permission acquired, Dean launched into a dramatic retelling of the events concerning his boyfriend and his roommate meeting, sparing no details and maybe possibly embellishing a bit. By the end of the story Charlie was giggling uncontrollably and it took a few solid minutes for her to contain herself. She wiped at her slightly teary eyes and looked at Cas who was leaning back against the booth seat, waiting patiently for the teasing to resume.

“Wow, well that’s definitely a memorable first impression,” the red-head said, patting Cas comfortingly on the arm. “Don’t worry though, Benny may look like grumpy bear but he’s actually a big softie; I bet he was flattered actually.”

Cas smirked and nodded, “Yes, he did seem pretty okay with it once he knew that I wasn’t some random person going around slapping unsuspecting men’s asses.”

Charlie huffed a laugh and stole a fry off of Cas plate, a sure sign that she was warming up to him; when the red-headed woman started stealing food off of someone’s plate, you could be certain she liked them. “I would bet there are a lot of people who wouldn’t mind you smacking them on the ass,” she said matter of factly, “You are kind of gorgeous, how the hell did Dean manage to land you?”

“Hey!” Dean exclaimed, glaring at his friend’s teasing glance; he poked her sharply in the side and chuckled as she jumped in the air with a yelp. “First of all, I just happen to be an amazing catch,” he said proudly, pointedly ignoring Charlie’s snort of laughter before continuing, “And besides, Cas was the one to ask me out actually, miss smartypants.”

Dean found himself being smacked forcefully in the shoulder. “What was that for?” he grumped, rubbing the area. For such a slim person, Charlie could hit just a hard as any guy he knew.

“Uh, maybe the fact that you didn’t immediately report to your Queen that you’d taken on a consort,” Charlie replied matter of factly. “As your friend I am entitled to any and all juicy relationship details, it’s in the friendship contract.”

“I do believe she’s right Dean,” Cas piped up, breaking his silence. He leaned forward, his expression formed into one of utmost severity and spoke to Charlie, “My friend Meg has informed me that this rule is extremely important. For shame Dean, keeping information away from your friend.” His boyfriend then looked at him with a sly smirk to which Dean responded with an eyeroll.

Figures that his friend and his boyfriend would be as thick as thieves after being in the same room for less than half an hour. 

Dean watched as Charlie slid over so she could wrap an arm companionably around Cas shoulders. “Castiel my friend,” she said to him conspiratorially, before the both of them looked up at Dean with matching smirks that he knew didn’t bode well for him or his ego, “You’re going to fit in around here just fine.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally! This is definitely describes my feelings on getting back on track with this story after a month away:  
>   
> My few days of Thanksgiving break gave me the time to set my brain back to a much better place (a bit of yoga can do wonders, my friends) so I could finish this chapter. I can't guarantee how long this will last for since the end of the year is always pretty busy and crazy at my job. However, the good news is that not only is my favorite coworker returning in a few days (so I won't have to cover her work anymore) but I've scheduled a few days off here soon so I plan on using them for sitting at home and writing up a storm as long as nothing nothing horrible happens *looks around shiftily before knocking on all wooden surfaces within reach*  
> So now that I've bored you all with the random details...thank you so much for still reading, I hope this was worth the wait :)


	21. Chapter 21

“You, sir, are a dirty pervert.”

Castiel chuckled and grinned brightly; Dean’s amusement was plain despite the other man’s attempt at being indignant and stern. He tucked his phone between his shoulder and his ear as he let himself into his apartment, kicking off his shoes once he was inside.

“Oh, like you’re one to talk,” he shot back with a grin, shivering slightly after taking off his jacket. Apparently the heat from the bakery below hadn’t been enough to keep the chill out of his apartment. “Is there any particular reason you’re calling and hurtling incredibly false accusations upon poor, weary bakers?”

He wandered into his apartment, intent on turning on his little heater, while he pictured his boyfriend rolling his eyes in annoyance. He knew perfectly well why Dean was calling and accusing him of being a deviant.

Dean’s voice sighed heavily in his ear, “Oh, I don’t know Cas; maybe it has something to do with this mysterious package that was in my mail this morning? The one that should have come with a big ass label that warns unsuspecting college students “Caution: Do Not Open in front of Roomate” on it?”

This caused Castiel to freeze in place as he was reaching into the fridge for some juice, his heart may have jumped a bit at the memory of what exactly he put in the box in question that Dean’s friend might have seen. Oh, this wasn’t good.

The thought that Benny had seen the contents of his little care package to his boyfriend had him wincing so bad it felt like he’d given himself a crick in his neck. It wasn’t as if he and Dean’s roommate didn’t get along, a surprising fact considering the utter disaster their first meeting had been, but the baker had been trying ever since to avoid any embarrassing incidents around the guy, an endeavor that would absolutely not be helped by Benny seeing that box.

“You really didn’t open that in front of Benny did you?” he asked, licking his lips nervously, all traces of his earlier cockiness dissipating immediately. There was no response. “Dean?” Still nothing. “Dean? Come on, answer me...Dean?”

Another nerve wracking moment of silence later, Dean’s uproarious laughter echoed in his ears and the baker collapsed back against the closed refrigerator door. He shook his head as his boyfriend continued to howl and decided to switch to speaker phone so he could pour himself a drink and wait for the other man to stop laughing. After what felt like an extremely long time later, Dean was able to contain himself.

“Am I to guess that you were just toying with me?” Castiel asked, trying to be nonchalant even though he was anxious to confirm that Benny did not in fact see the sexy contents of the box he’d sent Dean. It had seemed like such a good idea at the time. “Seems a bit rude considering that I sent you presents.”

He thought Dean would appreciate the contents of that box but then again...he may have been a bit tipsy when he’d actually put the package together a week ago. In his defense, the whole distance issue of his and Dean’s relationship was hitting him a bit harder than he had anticipated.

It had been about a month since he had seen his boyfriend. They talked every day, either by phone or text, but unfortunately they hadn’t been able to see each other in person since the day that they had taken the other man back to school. Dean’s professors were really piling on the work this year and as a result weekends were needed for getting all his assignments done. 

Not that Castiel was faring any better; as per usual, the arrival of the colder months meant more people tended to pop in for coffees and hot treats which meant that more people decided to order baked goods and bread so the bakery was extremely busy. Since the both of them were so busy, Castiel would set up his laptop down in the bakery on the weekends while he was putting together the orders for Gabriel’s deliveries while Dean did his homework; there usually wasn’t much talking involved but there was something comforting about knowing that his boyfriend was there, in a sense anyway.

“Uh huh, presents,” Dean’s voice drawled; Cas could picture the other man smirking at him. “Something tells me these presents are more for your enjoyment than for mine.” There was a moment’s pause as his boyfriend seemed to think for a second before continuing, his voice taking on that deep tone that sent shivers down the baker’s spine, “Well most of them anyway.”

Castiel could feel his face turning a spectacular shade of red that would have probably started another round of laughter for Dean if the other man were actually there to see it; he mentally cursed himself for thinking that sending that box wouldn’t have any consequences to his ego.

For one of the other issues that had arisen that had led to Castiel’s somewhat misguided care package was that, on top of the fact that he and Dean barely got to have a real conversation on a regular basis anymore, they hadn’t had a chance to be...intimate for what felt like forever. Despite Dean’s very obvious support of sexy times via webcam, the two of them had yet to partake in any such activities; hell, they hadn’t even sent each other sexy texts or had phone sex. 

Conflicting schedules, busy workloads and the frustratingly psychic nature of roommates had forced them both into a very much unwanted celibacy. At first they had laughed it off, not really caring about the lack of sex but after a month had passed, both of them were getting severely annoyed and frustrated and unfortunately for Castiel, when he got annoyed and frustrated, he tended to do stupid things.

Like buying a dildo for his boyfriend and sending it in a box to him.

This alone would probably not be an entirely sound plan, especially since some insane part of him mind thought it would be a great idea to make it a surprise and not tell Dean what he was doing, but then he may have been drinking a bit before he put together his little package and tipsy Castiel had thought it would be a fantastic notion to put naked photos of himself in the box too.

Castiel slapped himself in the face internally as he recalled that night; setting up the camera and stripping down before laying himself out on the bed and posing in what his alcohol addled mind thought were sexy poses. If he remembered correctly, there may even be some shots of him jerking off in there too.

Maybe he shouldn’t have sent that box without taking a look at the contents once he was completely sober.

Dean’s appreciative hum jogged him out of his trip down inadvisable memory lane, bringing him back to his present predicament. “Yeah, I definitely think a few of these are solely for me, aren’t they, baby?” Castiel could hear the faint sound of rustling paper, most likely Dean perusing his photos.

“That is possible, yes,” the baker responded as he nervously toyed with his empty juice glass, marvelling at how fast the tables had turned and he once again found himself as Dean’s prey.

“Aw don’t be shy Cas,” Dean replied, “I think the time for shyness passed when you sent me a sex box.” 

Castiel blushed again and rubbed the back of his neck; he wandered out of the kitchen and flopped down on the couch. “Well...it’s just..I’ve really missed you,” he mumbled into the phone, embarrassed at his wanton behavior, “And it seemed like a really good idea at the time but now…”

Now it seemed like he was a pushy horny boyfriend who didn’t have boundaries. God, he never should have sent that, especially not naked photos of himself. Who even does that?!

“Woah, slow your roll there Cas,” Dean interrupted him, “Did I say that I didn’t like it? I just wish you would’ve warned me so that I didn’t rip the damn box open in front of Benny expecting to find some homemade baked goods and finding homemade porn instead.” Castiel’s heart stopped again; he’d thought his boyfriend had been joking about opening the box in front of his roommate. His breathing was just starting to pick up in pace a bit when Dean continued hurriedly, “Don’t freak out! He didn’t see anything though he knows it must’ve been something sexy since, as he put it, I ‘started acting nuttier than a bunch of squirrels in pecan tree’ after I opened it.”

A wave of relief washed over the baker at hearing this. Dean’s roommate did in fact not see sexy nude photos of him. Castiel sent up an ecstatic prayer of thanks to whatever deity was listening at the moment.

“Oh thank fuck,” Castiel sighed, leaning back against the couch and running a hand through his hair. He let the relief course through him for a minute before pouting into the phone “You really had me worried there, that wasn’t very nice Dean.”

Dean chuckled again. “You shouldn’t be surprised, Cas. Did you really expect me to pass up the opportunity to tease you?”

“I suppose not,” the baker answered with a smile. It was true; if Dean hadn’t teased him at all, Castiel would have had to assume that the other man had been replaced by a pod person or something. “I really did think it was a good idea, though maybe I should have warned you.”

“Actually, I thought it was pretty hot Cas,” Dean said, his voice rumbling through the phone into Castiel’s ear. “Who knew you had it in you to be the one with sexy surprises?” There was a slight pause and when he spoke again, the other man’s voice had deepened. “Got any other bombshells for me today, big guy?”

Toes curling in his socks at what Dean was implying, Castiel shifted on the couch so he was stretched out; he smiled lazily. “Well there is actually another part to the whole scheme,” he answered. Dean made a sound, encouraging him to continue. “I may have bought a toy for me too.”

There was a sharp inhale on the other end of the line. The baker closed his eyes and pictured how his boyfriend must look now, somewhat shocked but with a hefty tinge of arousal; it really was a shame he wasn’t there to see it.

“Skype. Now.”

Thankfully no one would be witness to the undignified scramble that this order caused as Castiel rolled off the couch and onto the floor with a thud before practically running down the hall to his bedroom. He shut the door and quickly booted up his computer, watching impatiently as the Skype program took absolute ages to open. The little green dot next to a picture of Dean striking a pouty model-like pose was one of the best things Castiel had ever seen, second only to the sight of his boyfriend’s grinning face appearing on the screen.

The call had barely connected before Dean was asking impatiently, “What did you buy?!”

His face was slightly flushed and his eyes were starting to take on that darkened tone that Castiel was so familiar with. The baker adjusted his computer screen so he could lay back against his pillows and grinned, thoroughly enjoying Dean’s impatience.

“Oh, just a fleshlight,” he answered with purposeful ease, pretending to look at his fingernails. Another sharp breath had him locking gazes with the other man and he was pleased to see a dawning realization in those green eyes.

Apparently at puzzle pieces were clicking into place now.

Dean’s expression changed to something slightly more predatory as he adjusted his position so he was laying on his side. He was only wearing a ratty t-shirt and boxer briefs, leading Castiel to believe that he must be done with classes for the day. Perfect for the baker’s plan.

“So,” Castiel said as nonchalantly as possible as he plucked at the hem of bakery t-shirt, “You’re probably done for the day, got any plans for the evening? I remember you saying something about going to the movies with Benny earlier.”

His question was answered by a low chuckle. Dean rolled his eyes and shook his head. “You have all the subtlety of a brick, Cas,” he drawled while he fidgeted with the laptop screen. “Yes I am done with my classes for the day but I’m not going to the movies tonight and the answer to your actual question is yes, I have the room to myself for the night.” 

A shiver excitement washed over Castiel as he started teasing with his shirt again, giving his boyfriend glimpses of his stomach. It was time to move on with his scheme. “Then I guess you’d might be interested in a bit of fun?”

The screen was darkened momentarily as Dean sat up and leaned forward, the dark material of his shirt blocking the camera, but it was worth it because soon the tan skin of the other man’s chest filled the screen. The baker eagerly took in the sight of the other man lounging lazily on his bed, a satisfied smirk on his face’ his hands tingled with the desire to touch, to run his hands over the skin of Dean’s hips before rubbing his thumbs over the other man’s enticing hip bones and get his boyfriend’s hands on his own body in return but...obviously that wouldn’t be happening.

He supposed he’d have to find another way to satisfy that urge.

“Let’s play a game Dean,” the baker proposed, his voice muffled slightly as he pulled his shirt over his head. Once his vision wasn’t obscured, he saw that the other man was looking at him hungrily while he nodded. Castiel slowly unbuttoned and unzipped his jeans before shimmying out of them to leave himself in his underwear, putting the two of them on a level playing, before continuing, “Since I would like very much to touch you and have you touch me and that can’t happen at the moment, we’re going to play a little follow the leader.” He began skimming his hands lightly over his stomach, following the line of his underwear. “The game is simple; however I touch myself, I want you want you to touch yourself. Oh and make sure you have your present handy, we’ll be using that here in a little bit.”

Dean agreed with a hearty “fuck yes” and Castiel was treated to a front row seat to the other man’s ass wriggling back and forth while he rummaged on the floor for the item in question; the baker couldn’t resist the temptation to start rubbing his cock through the fabric of his underwear and smirked when the other man began doing the same once he’d settled down again.

“I can’t believe how long it’s been since I’ve seen you like this,” he sighed, letting his gaze wander, his mind mentally tallying all the places he wanted to get his mouth or hands on once they were in the same room again, all the while his hand lightly teased the skin above the waistband of his boxers. “One of these days our schedules are going to fit and I’m going to get you into my bed and we aren’t going to leave it for the entire day.”

“Mmm, I like the sound of that,” Dean mumbled, eyes heavy lidded as he followed Castiel’s lead, one hand toying with a nipple while the other started dipping below into his underwear. The baker made a warning sound when he noticed the other man’s hand getting awfully close to the quickly stiffening hard on he, well both of them really, was sporting.

“Remember, follow the leader,” Castiel chastised him playfully even though almost two seconds afterwards he slipped his underwear off and began to stroke himself slowly, so much for dragging this session out; the soft groan that this brought out of Dean was worth it though.

Castiel never would have thought it would be so arousing to watch Dean pleasure himself on camera, maybe it was the fact that, no matter what, he wouldn’t be able to touch, could only be a spectator. Maybe it was the fact that the other man was following his orders, stroking and touching wherever Castiel said, but whatever it was, it was causing a raging desire to reach out and take what they both wanted. Unfortunately the logistics of holding Dean down and fucking him into the mattress just wouldn’t work at the moment.

Luckily he had a solution for that.

He told Dean to get some lube; the other man didn’t need any other prompting, turning immediately to rummage off screen before returning with a bottle. Their previous game abandoned, Castiel laid back and continued teasing himself as his boyfriend opened himself up, looking on hungrily and wishing that his fingers were the ones sliding in and out, teasing and stretching. Shaking himself out of his internal fantasy so he could get back to the reality of Dean practically riding his own fingers, Castiel checked to see how the other man was.

“I’m fine,” Dean answered, slightly out of breath. The blonde met his eyes on the screen and reached for the toy that was laid out next to his hip; he grinned impishly as he brandished it. “Now, you’ve seen mine, it’s only fair I get to see yours.”

Smiling, Castiel rolled to his side and opened his bedside drawer, pulling out the second purchase he had made that fateful day he’d been lonely and horny as he surfed the internet. Fleshlight in hand, he turned back to the screen where he found that Dean had repositioned himself so that he was on his belly, one leg stretched out long with the other bent up towards his chest so his ass was on display and he could look at the screen.

“God, you’re fucking perfect,” Castiel breathed, loud enough to be heard considering the smirk that the other man shot his way before adopting an overly innocent face.

“I’m just trying to give you the best view,” he said with mock naivety, grabbing his toy. “You’ll want to be sure your purchase is in working order.”

The baker slicked himself up quickly, eyes never leaving the computer screen. He held the opening of his toy at the tip of his cock and nodded at Dean. “On three,” he said and slowly counted down.

Once he got to three, he slid the toy down firmly onto himself, groaning at the sensation but mostly at the sight of Dean sliding the dildo slowly into his ass; he could almost imagine that it was him fucking into the other man. There was a few moments of stillness as Dean adjusted but soon they were moving, eyes never leaving each other’s as they tried to mimic the movements of the other; it took a few minutes but soon they were moving together, Dean moving his toy in and out of his ass in time with Castiel’s thrusts into the fleshlight.

It wasn’t perfect, they both would have much rather they had the real thing, but for now this felt almost as good. Castiel was tempted to close his eyes so he could imagine it was Dean he was moving in but that would mean giving up the tantalizing view of Dean, eyes half closed and mouth open in pleasure while he moved the dildo in his ass. Every moan and cry that slipped out of the other man’s mouth, tightened the already dangerously tight coil in his groin. 

Celibacy had not been kind to Castiel’s stamina and all too soon he was dancing on the edge; the only thing that was good about this was it was extremely obvious that he wasn’t alone.

“It feels good doesn’t it?” he panted, Dean could on respond with a vigorous nod. The desperation in the other man’s movements had the baker speeding up his own thrusts, groaning. “I must have picked a good one then.”

Dean nodded again, eyes screwed shut as he worked the toy, panting into the bed sheets. He visibly forced his eyes open, his heated gaze burned into the baker’s through the screen so that he was transfixed. “Good---but not as good as you. No toy can--compare to your hard, thick---cock--- splitting me open,’ Dean managed to say between harsh pants, “Miss it, miss you---can’t wait until I can get my---hands on you and ride you---into the mattress.”

Castiel choked on air as his orgasm hit him like a mac truck, hips stuttering up into the toy as an image of Dean holding him down and riding him flashed through his brain. Deep groans of his name pulled him out of the haze a few minutes later, he turned his gaze to the computer and was rewarded with the extremely satisfying sight of Dean rutting into the sheets, still thrusting back onto the dildo as he came hard.

Their distance was felt painfully by both of them over the next few minutes; they both liked to touch and kiss afterwards so they settled for talking quietly until Castiel was forced to encourage them both to clean up. Dean more so than himself since he ran the risk of being discovered by his roommate. The other man complied, after a bit of complaining and griping, and disappeared from the screen, still chatting as he got rid of the evidence before Benny came back.

“So, I guess we can decisively say that our Skype sex skills are amazing,” Dean said, flopping back into view, he was wearing one of Castiel’s bakery shirts and a pair of sweats now. 

The baker chuckled and nodded before pulling on his own clothes, his room was slightly chilly now. “I think that’s a safe statement,” he replied, rubbing his eyes. He was starting to get sleepy after a hard day at the bakery and the unexpected sex but he didn’t want to end the call.

“I also think someone is all tuckered out,” Dean teased, noticing his tiredness. His gaze was soft, matching his smile. “Go to bed, Cas. You’ve been up since ass o’clock this morning and I know you get cranky without your post sex nap.”

Castiel rolled his eyes but knew that the other man was right. “Ha ha, you’re such a comedian,” he shot back though his snide remark was ruined a bit by a long yawn. Dean raised an eyebrow at him but said nothing. “Alright, alright. I’m going to bed.” He paused, taking a moment to just look at his boyfriend, looking mussed and fuzzy but happy, before saying quietly, “Good night Dean...I love you.”

“I love you too, Cas,” Dean responded without hesitation. He was smiling softly causing his eyes to shine in a way that made the baker want to grin like an idiot. “I’ll call you tomorrow.”

A little while later after the video chat was ended, Castiel fell asleep with a smile on his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A new chapter and it didn't take me almost two months this time :)  
> I guess I have my cold to thank for that, I had to leave work early today since I was of absolutely no use there (my cold medicine was making me groggy and a bit loopy). So I came home and finished up this chapter for you guys instead, hopefully my drugged brain wasn't lying to me when it said this chapter is ready to be posted. I suppose if it's not I'll come back later and l clean it up.
> 
> One more thought before I wrap up here: apparently writing long distance sex is really really difficult for me so I apologize if this smut isn't my best. I honestly didn't think it would be that hard to write. Anyway, thanks for reading :)


	22. Chapter 22

By some sort of miracle, Dean had not only gotten his schoolwork down to a manageable level but his professors must have had a secret meeting at their legion of doom headquarters and unanimously decided to cut him a break since none of them had given out new assignments for the weekend. There were no LARP club meetings for Charlie to drag him to and Benny was going to take Andrea out of town for mid-semester mini-vacation. All of this, plus the fact that his last class on Friday would end at ten instead of noon due to a cancellation, pointed to one glorious conclusion.

Dean was going home for the weekend.

As he rushed back to his dorm room, his mind was hurriedly taking stock of what he’d packed in his bag that morning; he didn’t want to waste any time getting on the road because the faster he blew this joint, the sooner he’d get home which meant more time there.

And more time with Cas.

Things had been a little better since the fateful day Cas had sent him a box filled with scads of naked photos, not to mention a dildo, and the two of them had finally popped their Skype sex cherries. It was like a dam had broken and now they got down and dirty via webcam every chance they got, which still wasn’t as often as they’d like since finding a time when they both weren’t busy or tired was still difficult, not to mention Benny had the absolute worst roommate timing ever. Don’t get Dean wrong, Benny was one of his best friends but seriously, it was like he had some sort of ‘Dean’s about to get some’ radar because the guy always seemed to come back to the room at the worst times. So sufficed to say Dean was really looking forward to not only getting to actually touch his boyfriend again but being in Cas’ apartment with all its lockable doors and single occupant status.

After checking his bag one last time, he picked up his phone to text Cas the good news seeing as he hadn’t told anyone his plans yet, but paused once he’d opened a blank text. His fingers hovered over the screen as an obvious idea occurred to him.

What if he surprised Cas instead?

He sat down on his bed as a plan began forming in his mind. It would be simple enough. Text Cas to set up a Skype date during the baker’s lunch, they’d done it before so it wouldn’t look suspicious, then let himself into the other man’s apartment and set a few things up so that when his boyfriend came up to have their lunch date, he’d find Dean there instead. Mostly likely naked in his bed unless he came up with anything more interesting. Yeah, that would be an awesome set up.

Mind made up and grinning like an idiot, Dean started texting Cas.

_To Cas: Hey babe! You up for a webcam lunch date today? It’s been a long day :/_

 

One long drive later, Dean was parking his baby several blocks away from the bakery; Cas would definitely recognize the sound of the Impala if he drove by since the motor was very distinctive and it wouldn’t help his plan if the other man started getting suspicious. There was a community parking lot close by that was used for the farmer’s market on Saturdays but was open to the public the rest of the time; he parked in one of the more hidden corners, just in case someone, his mom or dad for instance, drove by. He felt a bit giddy as he slipped out of the Impala and grabbed his bag before starting to walk towards the bakery; it was like being a secret agent, a sexy secret agent.

Getting into Cas’ building without being seen was actually pretty easy. There was an alley at the back of the bakery that allowed him access to the backdoor of the building and luckily for his plan, just inside the door was the staircase up to Cas’ apartment. Heart pounding, more from excitement rather than nerves, Dean carefully opened the backdoor; the smell of fresh bread and the sweet scent of pastries hit his nose and he took a moment to breathe deep, enjoying the familiar aromas that usually clung to his boyfriend. 

He was startled out of his distracted thoughts by the sound of Cas’ voice echoing down the hall from the kitchen. Shit, he couldn’t get caught standing here! Dean darted up the stairs, trying to be as stealthy as possible, pausing once he was up them to listen and make sure he hadn’t been spotted. Figuring that he was safe, he leisurely made his way over to the door to the apartment and reached up to find the spare key that the baker kept in the event he locked himself out.

Once he was inside, he reminded himself to relock the door and checked the clock on his phone. It was a little after noon which meant Dean had less than half an hour to set up his surprise before Cas came up to get his laptop. The laptop in question was sitting on the coffee table in the living room; he needed to get the other man to go into his bedroom so he snagged the computer and brought it with him. He knew that the baker only kept his computer in the living room or his bedroom so Cas would have to check his room if his computer wasn’t where he thought he’d left it.

Dean went into the bedroom, threw his bag onto the bed and set the laptop on Cas’ dresser to keep it out of the way; if everything went according to plan, neither of them would be paying attention to where it was once Cas was here. He smirked to himself as he imagined his boyfriend’s face when he came in to see what Dean had planned.

 

Things were definitely not going according to plan.

When the idea had occurred to him back on campus, it had seemed like a really easy thing to do to up the sexiness factor of his surprise. Cas loved honey so it was a no brainer to stop at a grocery store, one of those fancy pants organic places that he knew his boyfriend secretly loved, and pick up a bottle of it. All he would have to do is drizzle a bit on himself once he was settled in the bed and wait of the baker to come in and lick it off him. That had been the plan.

Simple enough right?  
Wrong.

Everything had gone fine at first. He’d stripped down and gone into the bathroom to get himself ready; he didn’t want to waste anytime and there would be plenty of time later to have Cas involved in that particular process. That bit of business squared away, Dean grabbed the bottle of honey, the box of condoms and the bottle of lube and took them with him to the bed; ever the showman, he arranged the pillows on the bed so that he could lounge out enticingly and put the supplies on the bedside table. He checked the time again, five minutes before Cas should be coming up to the apartment for what he thought was another lunch date on Skype. Perfect.

He rolled onto his back, grinning at his own awesomeness, and grabbed the bottle of honey. Popping the cap off, Dean began drizzling the sticky golden liquid on himself; starting with a bit on his chest before making a trail down to his bell and then placing some at his hips and at the base of his cock. Cas would be coming in any minute now so he leaned over to put the bottle of honey back on the bedside table, it might come in handy later. The bottle was almost touching the wooden surface of the table when disaster struck.

The hand propping him up so his torso was off the mattress slipped.

 

So here he was, one minute before Cas should be waltzing through the door, lying face down on his boyfriend’s once clean sheets that were now smeared with honey and most likely sticking to his skin.

Not sexy at all.

He rolled over onto his back, thinking frantically on how to salvage this disaster that had mere minutes ago been his amazing sexy plan. Maybe he could cover the sticky spot with some of the sheets, sure it was just prolonging the inevitable cleanup but at least they could have their fun first, and then re-apply the honey. It really seemed like the only viable plan at the moment since it was obvious he didn’t have enough time for anything else. He made a move to grab for the corner of the bedsheets when suddenly he heard the sound of feet coming down the hall; Dean had no time to even think about a reaction before the door swung open to reveal Cas.

Well, shit.

At first, Cas froze as the previously annoyed look on his face changed to one of confusion shortly followed by a smile so bright it would have made Dean do likewise if he weren’t currently trying to fix his blunder.

“Dean!” Cas breathed from the doorway, looking at him like he was the most amazing thing he’d ever seen. Dean opened his mouth to start explaining when the other man bolted towards the bed in a flurry of movement and in a split second he knew what was going to happen.

“Cas! Wait--” Dean shouted, trying to stop the inescapable event that was unfolding but of course he was too late.

A still clothed Cas flopped onto the bed, falling right on Dean’s sticky honey covered chest.

The baker didn’t even appear to notice anything was off kilter as he attacked Dean’s mouth like a man who had found water after wandering the desert. They kissed like mad for several minutes, Cas’ hands knotted almost painfully in his hair while Dean tried to reciprocate without putting his tacky hands on his boyfriend’s clothes but he eventual gave up and reached down to firmly grasp the other man’s jean clad ass.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were coming home?” Cas asked breathlessly when they were eventually forced to part so they could breath. Before Dean could answer him, he shifted slightly and immediately paused, a confused look on his face. “And why are you sticky?”

Dean grimaced, embarrassed, and looked up at the ceiling. “Well,” he said after clearing his throat, “I may have wanted to surprise you with something sexy like you did for me so...uhm...it’s possible I may have bought some honey and drizzled it...all over myself…”

A wave of understanding dawned on Cas’ face and he nodded. “So I suppose that’s what all that ‘Cas! Wait!’ business was about, then huh?”

“Yeah,” Dean confirmed, biting his lip. Well this was all going to hell in a handbasket pretty damn quick wasn’t it?

Cas moved to get off of him and sure enough, the material of his t-shirt stuck to Dean’s chest before peeling off in a gooey fashion. That was bad enough but then to make matters worse, of course since it just seemed to be that sort of day, the other man rolled over onto his back right on to the spot on the sheets that was also smeared in honey. If it weren’t for the feeling of mortification that was currently turning Dean’s face what was probably a fantastic shade of red, the look on his boyfriend’s face when he landed on the sticky sheets and felt that something was a miss would have been priceless.

“And there may have been a small mishap with the sheets too,” he confessed, looking at the baker sheepishly. He waited anxiously to see what Cas would do, hoping that he hadn’t completely ruined their little reunion.

He wasn’t left in suspense for long because soon the deep sound of Cas’ laughter was ringing out in the room and he couldn’t help but join in; it was a pretty hilarious situation really. They laid there laughing together for a surprisingly long time before either of them could stop. Cas slowly started to wind down; he turned his head on the pillow and looked over at Dean

“You’re the best, you know that right?” he said reaching out to cup his cheek. Dean smiled back at him, his recent blunder momentarily forgotten, at least until he made to mirror the gesture and couldn’t since his hand was coated in honey. Cas chuckled again at the pout on his face and sat up. “Come on, let’s get these sheets off; I’ll put on some new ones while you get the shower started.”

Dean rolled off the bed carefully, trying not to further the damage but was mainly unsuccessful while Cas busied himself in the closet looking for new sheets. He stretched his arms overhead, his nose curled in disgust at the uncomfortable feeling of the honey, and then grimaced when he stupidly rested the honey hand on his neck. This was definitely going down as one of the stickiest things he’d ever done in the bedroom.

“Are you going to be joining me?” he tossed casually over his shoulder while he paused to grab a towel out of the laundry basket, making sure to use his clean hand. There was a sudden presence at his back and a pair of warm hands on his bare shoulders.

“Don’t ask stupid questions,” Cas rumbled into his ear before licking a long hot stripe up the side of Dean’s neck causing him to shiver pleasantly. “Mmm...yummy.” Another sinfully slow lick. “The honey’s good too.”

And then the teasing bastard was gone, back to putting the sheets on the bed as if he hadn’t just gotten Dean’s motor running to an insane degree. He glared at the other man’s back, without too much heat of course, and went into the bathroom to start the shower, his discomfort with the stickiness on his skin overpowering his need for a snide remark.

In no time at all, the shower water was heated up and Dean got in eagerly. He had just gotten a good lather worked up and was about to start scrubbing at the mess on his chest and belly when his teasing boyfriend sidled his way into the shower. The other man snatched the washcloth from his hand began washing his chest himself, rubbing the skin in slow steady circles that left Dean tingling.

Cas pressed himself up against his back and hooked his chin on Dean’s shoulder as he worked, though his motions had turned more from washing into massaging at this point. “I want you to know that I really liked the idea you had,” he said quietly, his lips tracing up and down Dean’s neck causing him to close his eyes. “We’ll have to try that again sometime because I would have loved to help you clean up that honey the way you’d originally planned.”

The hand rubbing the washcloth on his stomach slipped downward suddenly and Dean inhaled sharply, eyes snapping open. That dark chuckle rumbled right next to him and he could feel the vibrations travel from Cas’ chest to his own. His breathing sped up as Cas abandoned the charade of washing him to grab his hard cock, starting up slow strokes; Dean’s knees got a bit wobbly as the arousal that had been simmering inside him ever since he came up with his ill-fated plan roared to life.

“This seems like a pretty nice way to clean up too,” he said, reaching back to grip a bare hip so he could pull Cas closer as he pressed his ass backward, smirking when the motion brought forth a moan from his boyfriend. He craned his neck back, wordlessly asking Cas for what he wanted, and was obliged. 

The angle quickly became too awkward and Dean was forced to turn even though this meant the loss of the other man’s hand on him but it was worth it to enjoy the wet heat of his boyfriend’s mouth. God, he’d missed this; the way Cas nibbled on his lips before forcing his tongue between Dean’s teeth to claim his mouth, his hands pulling firmly at his hips to bring their hips together. The dark haired man pressed him firmly up against the cool tile of the shower wall so that he had Cas’ hot wet skin rubbing him from the front and the contrasting chill of the wall behind him; Dean shivered as the different sensations sent ripples of arousal through him.

“Cas!” Dean gasped breaking the kiss when the grinding motions of their hips were proving not quite enough to push him over. “Touch me, please.” Maybe later he would be embarrassed by the note of begging in his tone but right now he couldn’t seem to care, not while he felt like he was about to catch fire from the burning heat that was building inside him paired with the damp heat of the shower and Cas’ skin sliding slickly over his, lighting up every nerve ending he had.

The baker heard his plea and wormed a hand between their stomachs to grip them both in his fist before beginning to rapidly jerk them off. Dean groaned, dropping his forehead down to rest on his boyfriend’s shoulder; his hips rutting up into the tunnel of the other man’s hand, desperately chasing his release. He was bombarded by all the sensations, the water beating down on his skin, Cas nipping and sucking at his neck, the way their bodies slid together, soap slick and wet; it had been too long since he’d had this and no webcam session or his own mind’s fantasies could compare to the unique form of tension rapidly reaching critical levels in his groin that only Cas’ hands on him could provide. 

“Do it, Dean, come for me,” Cas panted in his ear, “I want to see you come by my hands, no toys, just you and me.”

Dean’s eyes slammed shut and he bit down hard on the muscle of Cas’ shoulder as he came violently between them; Cas gasped though with pain of the bite or with pleasure as his orgasm hit him, Dean couldn’t tell since his brain was currently a pile of mush. They both stood there, panting and leaning heavily against each other and the wall, coming down from the high. As per usual, Cas hands ran over him though with a bit more care, as if he were trying to make up for lost time; at least that’s what Dean supposed since he was doing the same thing. All in all it was a perfect moment.

Until the hot water gave out.

“Fuck!” Dean yelped, almost slipping and falling as he jumped at the feel of icy water falling on his heated skin. Cas let out a shuddering gasp and reached blindly into the arctic spray for the knobs, head bent in defense against the cold, trying to turn off the onslaught. It took several tries for this to happen and by the time it did, Dean was shivering. They stood there, dripping wet, staring at each other. He sent a glum look at Cas, “Well shit, I can’t even follow through on my backup sexy plans without something going wrong.”

Cas smiled at him and pulled him in for a hug; Dean went reluctantly, his bruised pride making it hard to just accept it. The baker kissed him deeply before kissing him on the head. “I happen to think this is one of the sexiest surprises I’ve ever gotten,” he declared, squeezing him extra hard to try and get a reaction, only letting go once he got what he wanted. “Now, I say we dry off and spend the rest of the day in bed. Maybe try out some of that honey later on?”

Despite his still slightly tender pride, Dean couldn’t help smile and nod at the roguish glint in those blue eyes as strong hands pulled him out of the shower.

Yeah, maybe the plan didn’t turn out so bad after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know what you're all thinking "A new chapter? But it hasn't been over a month yet, what is this sorcery?!" but I was extremely motivated to write this chapter because this was one of the very first scenes that I imagined for these two, after the awkward first meeting of course, and I've been waiting very impatiently for them to get to this point so I could write it. It didn't turn out exactly like I planned but this isn't the first time the boys decided I needed to take a slightly different route. 
> 
> The downside to this is that I've reached the end of my planned scenes list so we have officially reached the "I'm flying by the seat of my pants" stage on this one. I love this story and am reluctant to see it end. I do have a few vague ideas for some more plot points; I don't know if they are going to work but I'll try my best to at least give this story a good ending.


	23. Chapter 23

Castiel twitched, reaching a hand clumsily out of the covers to swat at whatever small insect was currently tickling his ear. After a few badly coordinated swats, the ticklish feeling abated; he curled back under the covers and snuggled up to the solid wall of warmth at his side, deciding that letting unconsciousness claim him again was a pretty awesome idea. There was absolutely nowhere else he wanted to be.

The annoying sensation began again, this time on the exposed skin of his shoulder.

_Stupid fly,_ his groggy mind grumbled as he reached a hand out again, determined to get rid of the menace so he could get back to his nap. _Buzz off, you little shit._

It was during a particularly energized slap towards the pest that the baker’s hand finally hit something.

A large warm something.  
That was definitely _not_ a bug. 

His eyes shot open and, arms flailing wildly, he rolled onto his back as he cursed. “What-da-fuck?!” Castiel slurred, head still filled with sleepy cobwebs. The baker bolted upright, heart pounding and eyes scanning the room wildly for the intruder only to see that one of the last people on earth he wanted to be in his bedroom under any circumstance. 

“God dammit Gabriel,” he groaned in annoyance as he slumped back down on to the mattress, his frantically beating heart starting to calm now that Castiel realized there was no threat, well no threat beyond his annoying pest of a brother. He ran a hand through his hair and glared at his sibling’s irritatingly chipper expression. “What the fuck are you doing in my---”

The tirade about Gabriel just waltzing into his room that was poised to leave his mouth evaporated as he caught a glimpse of his alarm clock where the bright red numbers announced that it was 3 o’clock in the afternoon.

It was the middle of a weekday, what the hell was _he_ doing in his bedroom?!

Suddenly the lump of blankets next to him started to shift, grumbling noises issuing from the depths of the comforter. Oh, that's right...Dean was here. 

His mind was filled with images, memories of his boyfriend’s surprise visit and Dean’s little honey plan going awry, of the both of them getting a shower and then...well, Castiel supposed the physical activity afterwards was the reason he fell asleep so heavily. 

The blankets moved again and this time a messy head of dirty blonde hair popped out and Castiel found himself looking into a pair of sleepy green eyes. “Who the fuck is making all that noise?”

“An annoying brother,” Castiel sighed in response to his boyfriend’s grumbled question. Dean finally extracted himself from the blanket and sat up to lean against the headboard, bringing the sleep warm skin of his shoulder to rest against Castiel’s. The baker unconsciously leaned into the touch, only slightly self conscious of the fact he, and his boyfriend, were only a few blankets away from being bare-assed naked in front of his brother.

Gabriel’s hand shot up to clutch at his chest, his face the picture of scandalized hurt. “Cassie,” he gasped with forced shock, “Me? Annoying? After I was such a nice brother and spent the last few hours running a bakery in order to allow my horny little spaniel of a brother to enjoy some afternoon delight with his male model boyfriend?” He concluded this ridiculous charade with a pointed leer at Dean’s bare chest, chuckling when Dean self consciously brought the blanket higher up on himself as a shield, “Don’t worry sugar tits, you’re not my type.”

“So everything is fine down at the shop?” Castiel asked, pointedly ignoring Gabriel’s attempts to antagonize him as Dean scowled tiredly at his brother. Now that he was more alert, his mind was running like a deranged hamster on a wheel as he thought about all the things that might’ve gone wrong. While it’s true Castiel had left the shop in Gabriel’s dubiously capable hands, it hadn’t ever been during any of the known busy times; someone might have needed to change their order at the last minute or a one of his regular customers might have called with an unexpected rush order and then there was the prep work for the next day….

A battered notebook being tossed suddenly at his chest broke him out of his thoughts. Gabriel rolled his eyes and motioned for him to open it. “Relax Mr. Workaholic, you think that after working with your nit-picky ass for this long I wouldn’t be able to handle the place? I know the drill, I even crossed everything off on the magical to-do list,” Gabriel said, waving his fingers in the air mockingly to which Castiel responded with a tired roll of his eyes.

His brother didn’t understand why Castiel preferred to use to-do lists to help order his day and was constantly teasing him about it. The baker leafed through the pages of his well-used notepad until he got to the list he had made for today; all of the items on the list were crossed off, just like Gabriel had claimed. 

Finding himself thoroughly impressed, Castiel closed the notebook. “Okay, I have to admit, you seem to have done a good job,” he said causing Gabriel to preen outrageously. “But I think I’ll still pop down to take a look at things, just for my peace of mind.” He swung his legs off the side of the bed, carefully keeping a corner of the blanket on his lap. When his brother failed to take the hint and leave, he continued, “If you don’t want to be mentally scarred, I suggest you leave so I can get some pants on.”

“Yeah, I definitely don’t need an eyeful of itty bitty Cassie,” Gabriel declared as he hopped off the bed and left the room, slamming the door dramatically behind him. 

“Should I get dressed too?” Dean asked from his place on the bed while Castiel slipped on a pair of underwear and jeans from the floor. His shirt was a lost cause due to the honey mishap so he stole Dean’s and pulled it on. “Hey, that’s my shirt!”

“Fair’s fair, Dean, you did have a hand in getting mine dirty” the baker chuckled and sat down to put on his socks and shoes. Once he was dressed, he turned his head to look at the other man over his shoulder and smirked, “Besides, you won’t be needing it anytime soon.”

Suddenly the baker was being hugged from behind by a pair of strong arms and pulled into a warm bare chest. Lips pressed themselves to Castiel’s ear, nipping lightly before whispering huskily, “Am I to assume that means this trip down to the shop will be a quick one?” 

Castiel hummed distractedly in confirmation, trying to work up the motivation to pull away from Dean’s inviting embrace and go down to the shop; an effort that was made even more difficult by a mouth nipping and sucking at his neck and a hand sliding down his chest to slip just inside the waistband of his jeans. 

Wait, why was he wearing clothes again? Oh, yeah, the shop.

“You’re a sneaky bastard, you know that?” he groaned, reluctantly pulling Dean’s searching fingers out of his pants and standing up.

“You don’t seem to upset about it,” Dean countered. The other man was sprawled enticingly over the bed, a state of affairs that had to be deliberate considering the smug grin on his boyfriend’s face. He was even running his hands idly over himself, drawing even more attention to the fact that he was as bare as the day he was born. “In fact, I think you like it.”

The sexy bastard.

“You know that I do,” Castiel confirmed, unable to stop himself from trailing a finger up Dean’s shin causing his boyfriend to shiver slightly. “But I really would like to be able to go down to the shop without a hard on if you don’t mind.”

Dean laughed and rolled over onto his belly, propping his head on his hand, “Yeah, I suppose that would make things a bit awkward.”

“Yes, so before you start working your wiles again,” the baker said as he walked to the bedroom door, “I’m going to go down and make sure my shop hasn’t caught on fire. I’ll only be gone for like ten minutes, fifteen tops.”

“Yeah, go and do the responsible bakery owner thing,” Dean sighed, waving his hand towards the door. He rolled back onto his back, folding his arms behind his head and grinning at him. “I’ll just be here, cataloguing all the filthy things I’m going to do to you when you get back.”

Castiel shivered and hurried out the door. The sooner he checked on the shop, the sooner he could get back to more important matters.

 

True to his brother’s word, the shop had been in perfect condition when Castiel had finally made it downstairs. Hannah was manning the register and handling the cafe customers while Gabriel finished up the orders for delivery and pick up; his notoriously irresponsible brother had even gotten the prep work completed for the next day. In fact, the only thing that really needed to be done for the day was the nightly deposit.

“I wouldn’t mind doing that for you if you want to take the rest of the day off,” Hannah offered when Castiel mentioned this. The knowing look in her eyes told him that she knew exactly why he disappeared at lunchtime even though she swore his brother hadn’t spilled the beans and the baker couldn’t help the rush of heat that came to his cheeks at the thought of his employee having even a slight inkling of what he’d been up to upstairs. “And I know that you don’t have me scheduled for tomorrow but I don’t mind coming in for a few hours; you know, if you wanted to take the day off for some reason.”

It took every ounce of his self control to not cringe and blush like crazy at this obvious offer to allow him sometime with Dean but Castiel wasn’t going to say no to a day off especially now that he knew that Hannah and Gabriel felt comfortable running the place. “Thank you Hannah, I think I’ll take you up on that if you really don’t mind coming in tomorrow.”

Hannah waved him off good naturedly. “No problem, you deserve a bit of time for yourself,” she said. Suddenly she bopped herself on the forehead as she remembered something. “Oh, I almost forgot,” she exclaimed, reaching over to grab the message pad by the shop’s phone. “Your mom called while you were at lunch. She said she wants you to call her back, something about dinner tomorrow.”

Castiel thanked her for passing the message along and made a mental note to call his mother before leaving the register in her capable hands. Then, after making a quick stop in to be sure that Gabriel hadn’t reverted to his usual destructive behavior and started demolishing the kitchen, he went back up to his apartment. He was very careful to remember to lock the door; there was no way they were going to have another repeat of his brother’s visit.

Not wanting to waste any of the windfall of time that he’d somehow been granted, the baker left a trail of clothes from his door to his bedroom. His mind was whirling with all the possible sights that would greet him on the other side as he opened the door to reveal Dean, gloriously naked Dean, on his bed. Studiously scribbling in his notepad.

Okay, that wasn’t exactly on the list of expected scenarios.

“What are you doing?” he asked, eyebrows knitted in confusion. Considering how he’d found his boyfriend earlier this afternoon, the baker had accept some sort of sexy pose or something. Not that he was complaining about Dean being naked in his bed of course; it was just unexpected.

In response to his question, the other man looked up from whatever he was writing, a suspiciously innocent and nonchalant air about him. He made a great show of looking lustfully at Castiel’s bare chest before writing something else on the page with a flourish. “Oh you know, just a list of all the depraved things we’re going to do this weekend,” Dean said, focusing his attention on his work again. “I know how much you enjoy a good list.”

Castiel chuckled and walked over to the bed, craning his head over to try and see the notebook only to have Dean roll onto his side to hide it from him. “I do enjoy a good list, especially naughty lists.” He tugged his boyfriend backward so they were flush together, kissing the other man’s neck. “You going to let me look at it?”

Dean made a big show of considering but eventually he caved, thanks to a little help from Castiel’s roaming hands and lips. With a sigh of defeat, he flipped the notebook right side up so that the baker could peer down at it from over his shoulder. There, scrawled in Dean’s spiky handwriting, was indeed a list.

_Dean and Cas’ Sexcapade List_

_\- Couch sex_  
_\- Blow jobs in the kitchen_  
_\- Shower sex_  
_\- Living room blow jobs_  
_\- Fucking in the guest room_  
_\- More fucking in the bedroom_  
_\- Make out followed by blowjobs on the couch_

“I see you’ve put quite a bit of thought into this,” Castiel commented once he’d taken in Dean’s list. His hand trailed down to tease the hairs below his boyfriend’s belly button. “But haven’t we already completed the ‘shower sex’ one? Also, I think some of your items are redundant. Not that I’m complaining, I’m up for repeat performances if you are.”

“Everything on this list is absolutely necessary,” Dean answered haughtily, turning in Castiel’s grip and using the momentum to put the baker onto his back. He shimmied on top of him, pinning a nonresistant Castiel to the bed, so he could attack his jaw. “And I’m not letting you out of this apartment until everything on that list is crossed off.”

Castiel hummed contentedly, enjoying the feel of Dean undulating slowly on top of him. He gripped the firm ass under his hand before giving it playful slap. “Then we better get started, we have a lot of ground to cover.”

With remarkable speed, Dean was rolling off him and standing by the door. He stood in the doorway, brandishing the notebook. “Well according the almighty list, couch sex it is in order. Race you to the living room!” the other man shouted, bolting out of the room to leave Castiel scrambling to catch up.

It was going to be a fantastic weekend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm not exactly happy with this one but it did help me come up with a plan for the next chapter. The other good thing about this chapter is that it helped me dig a small hole in the giant ass wall that has been my writer's block so I can make a bit of progress on my other stories. (To anyone reading "when you think you've seen it all", I got really good chunk of the next chapter written so I swear there will be an update some day soon!) 
> 
> I'd also like to take a moment to see if there's anyone who would like to beta read some other fics I'm working on. Consider how obvious it is that I have issues with updating consistently, I've vowed that I won't start posting my next few stories until they are either done or a hairsbreadth from being done. The only problem with this plan is I don't have any feedback besides myself and I sort of rely on feedback to know if I'm going in the right direction with something. I've never had a beta reader before (I'm not even sure if this is how you find one to be honest) so if anyone is interested, please let me know in the comments or you can message me on tumblr (blue-reveries.tumblr.com). 
> 
> And as always, thank you so much for reading. :)


	24. Chapter 24

“No, I refuse to believe that’s all. There has to be more.”

The only response Dean’s oh so loving boyfriend had to his outrage was to laugh at him. “Sorry to be the one to break the news to you but that is indeed it.”

“I demand more,” Dean declared loudly as if to let the entire world hear his anger, shaking his fist in the air. “We should protest and make some witty signs that say ‘I believe in Tad Cooper’ or some shit.” This potential battle plan only caused Cas to laugh even harder, the vibrations of it travelling through the other man’s chest and into his back.

They were currently lounging on the couch, naked as jaybirds of course, after ticking another one of the items off the sexy to do list; it turns out the bed in the guest room isn’t nearly as comfortable as Cas’ but somehow they’d been able to soldier on. It had become an unspoken rule that during their down time (because let’s be serious even though their recovery time wasn’t horribly long, having almost round the clock sex was pretty damn strenuous) they lay out on the couch and binge TV. 

It was during one of these breaks that Cas introduced Dean to one of the most hilarious things he’d ever seen, a musical comedy about a knight and his adventures to get his true love back. At first Dean had been skeptical but after the first episode he was utterly hooked and he was delighted to find out that there were two seasons of it, even if they were short. Unfortunately after the season two finale Cas had burst his bubble and told him the show hadn’t been renewed, thus setting off Dean’s ire.

“We’ll just have to storm the network offices and force them to start the show again,” Cas teased him, his fingers running up and down Dean’s arm. “But I will warn you, that would mean that we’d not only have to put on pants but we’d have to pause our great mission.”

The mention of clothing only deepened Dean’s pout. “We’re going to have to put pants on soon anyway,” he reminds his boyfriend, deliberately wriggling his ass back into the body behind him in retaliation to the teasing touch of fingers on his arm and side. “Dinner at your parents’ tonight, remember?”

After their first round in the living room, Cas had remembered that he needed to call his mom so he took a moment to call her back while Dean made a few sandwiches and called his own parents; the knowing tone in his mom’s voice as she told him to have a good time when he informed her he was staying at Cas’ while he was in town and that he’d stop by on Sunday for a visit had him blushing fire engine red. They chatted for a few more minutes before hanging up and by that time Cas was off the phone too. It turned out that Mrs. Novak wanted her son to come over for dinner Saturday night and was delighted to hear that Dean was in town, insisting that he be brought along. 

“Yeah, we are going to have to get going soon,” Cas sighed glumly, obviously reluctant to leave their current nest. He reached over Dean, leafing through the various remnants of their patchwork meals to grab his phone off of the coffee table and check the time. “It looks like we have just enough time to get a shower and dressed.”

Dean, taking note of Cas’ use of the singular, shuffled around so he could shoot a speculative smirk over his shoulder at the other man. “Do we have enough time to check ‘shower sex’ off the list again?”

The baker shook his head and nudged at his shoulder, indicating he wanted to get up; Dean obliged grumpily, not happy about losing his comfy body pillow. “Unfortunately, there’s no time for shower shenanigans,” Cas said matter of factly, pulling a reluctant Dean off the couch who yelped with indignation at the hearty smack that was applied to his bare ass. “But non-sexy showers are just as nice, I promise.”

 

It turned out that non-sexy showers were indeed nice, not as nice as the sexy variety, Dean made sure to point out but there was something very satisfying about soaping up the broad planes of Cas’ chest and back. Not to mention the dangerously close to pornographic noises his boyfriend made when he massaged shampoo into the other man’s scalp though Dean had to admit, he wasn’t exactly quiet when Cas returned the favor. He swore, not for the first time, the man had magic fingers.

They were in and out of the shower in a little over half an hour; Cas had remained strong in the face of Dean’s sneaky attempts to coax him into a little something something extra but he did make it up to him by getting a little handsy while they were getting dressed. It wasn’t much but it made up for the rejection of his, quite frankly suave, advances earlier.

“Do we need to bring anything?” Dean asked, grabbing his wallet off the bedside table. Cas, who was lacing up his boots, shook his head.

“Nope, my contribution is going to be the one cooking actually,” he replied. At Dean’s confused look, he continued, “My mother doesn’t let us bring anything to dinner so a long time ago, I told her that either she let me bring something or I cook. Considering how fast she jumped on the offer, I suspect she played me.”

Dean laughed, the idea of Cas’ mom taking him for a sucker was hilarious and the baleful look the baker gave him in response only made him laugh harder. “Oh man, that’s just awesome,” he said between giggles as they made their way out of the apartment, “So you’re like, your mom’s dinner slave or something.”

Cas rolled his eyes, a slight pout on his face. “You laugh but don’t underestimate the deviousness of my mother. I suspect that she’s where Gabriel gets it from.”

There was a slight argument as to whose vehicle they were going to take. Cas had made Dean go and retrieve the Impala early this morning, arguing that it wouldn’t be fair to take up a parking space on farmer’s market day. Obviously each of them wanted to take their own vehicle; eventually Cas emerged victorious, after sneakily reminding him how intimate riding his bike was. Dean swore he could practically see the smug rolling off his boyfriend as he clambered onto the back of the Harley but he found that he wasn’t really bothered by it once he was pressed up against Cas’ back.

The drive went pretty well and Dean was proud to see that the few riding lessons he’d had with Cas seemed to have stuck and they were definitely paying off; he didn’t feel any where near as skittish when they came to the first turn. It was actually a nice ride. Cas complimented him on his progress after they’d removed their helmets in the Novak’s driveway.

“You’re really getting the hang of the turns,” he said. Cas hung his helmet on one handlebar before holding his hand out for Dean’s. He beamed at the baker as he handed his helmet over.

“It definitely doesn’t seem quite as freaky anymore,” Dean admitted as they walked up the sidewalk. The lights in the windows of the house glowed invitingly and after a chilly ride, the only downside to riding a motorcycle in November, Dean was looking forward into being inside.

An enthusiastic kiss was pressed to his cheek. “I’m really glad, Dean,” his boyfriend said, the grin on his face making his eyes shine. He knocked twice on his parents’ door before letting them inside.

They were hanging their jackets on the hooks next to the door and kicking off their boots when Mrs. Novak’s voice echoed from in the house. “Castiel? Dean? It’s about time you got here.”

“Oh, they probably just got caught up in all the screwing around they were doing,” Gabriel’s voice contributed causing Cas’ face to settle into the look of ‘kill me know’ annoyance that he typically wore around his brother and Dean to blush slightly at the thought that at least one of his boyfriend’s parents heard that.

Sharing a look of resignation, Cas led the way to the kitchen with Dean following behind. Mrs. Novak was in the kitchen when they got there, pulling out all the ingredients for dinner, while Gabriel was chopping vegetables on the counter by the sink with a supremely pouty expression.

Mrs. Novak set down the box of noodles and cans of tomatoes she was holding and smiled at the two of them. “There you are. Castiel, you said you were going to be here at four o’clock and it’s going on four thirty, I was just getting ready to call you.”

“Oh, that was my fault, Mrs. Novak,” Dean jumped in as he realized that they hadn’t decided on an excuse as to why they were later than they’d said they’d be. Cas looked at him with lightly veiled curiosity, probably wondering just what Dean had come up with. “I had to call my mom and the call ran on for a little longer than I’d thought it would.” 

Gabriel scoffed and looked over his shoulder at them. “Uh huh, that’s exactly why you two horndogs are late,” he said, rolling his eyes before grumbling quietly, “Maybe I should tell Mother why you missed an entire afternoon of work, Cassie.”

Cas glared warningly at his brother and opened his mouth, probably to deliver some sort of angry retort, but was silenced by Mrs. Novak reminding them that if they wanted to eat tonight, they had better get cooking. Her voice never changed from it’s usual pleasant tone but even Dean could see that the look in her eye promised disaster to either of her sons if they continued to bicker; Dean had to work extremely hard not to laugh his ass off as Cas’ mouth snapped shut and he started fiddling with the stove while Gabriel returned to his vegetables, mumbling under his breath.  
In an attempt to avoid getting his own dose of Mrs. Novak’s disapproval, Dean took the bowls that she was holding and encouraged her to sit down.

“You’re a such a nice boy,” she said with a warm smile, patting him lightly on the cheek. She narrowed her eyes at the backs of her sons’ heads, “Maybe some of your manners will rub off on those boys of mine. And don’t you dare say it, Gabriel!” She looked pointedly at her oldest son who’d turned around, hand raised and mouth open, obviously ready to pounce on the less than wise wording of her last statement.

“Come on, Mother,” her oldest son whined, pouting as he returned to the task he’d been given, “You can’t set me up like that and then deny me the punchline, that’s just wrong.”

The sounds of Cas’ and Gabe’s sibling banter, accompanied by brief appearances of Mrs. Novak, became the soundtrack to the rest of the meal preparation. Dean assisted with the cooking but took the opportunity to just sit back and enjoy being a spectator; he supposed it was probably like what watching him and Sammy was like, something that Cas had been witness to numerous times. It was sort of nice to be on the other side for once and even though he was technically the odd one out, he didn’t feel uncomfortable. 

To be honest, Dean had actually felt vaguely at home at Cas’ parents’ house ever since the slightly awkward ‘meet the parents’ dinner all those months ago when he and Cas had made everything official. Things had been a bit stiff and weird at first but having Gabe around, who had insisted he be there ‘to watch the show’ and ended up being the actual show in all honesty, made everyone relax a bit. Come to think of it, he never did thank him for being a strangely helpful pain in the ass.

Soon enough, dinner was ready and they all sat down to eat. While the Novak men weren’t inherently religious, Mrs. Novak was to a small degree and insisted on saying grace before they ate.

“So, Dean,” Mrs. Novak spoke while they were dishing out the food onto their plates, “Are you on break from school?”

Dean dropped a big spoonful of potatoes on his plate and shook his head. “Nope, Mrs. Novak, just had a couple of my Friday classes get cancelled so I figured, why not come home for a short visit?” he answered. He passed the bowl to Cas. “I’ll have to head back on Sunday but if I’m remembering right, I’ve only got a month or so until the end of the semester.”

“Well that’s not so bad then, seeing that you got an unexpected break,” Chuck, Dean had a hard time thinking of him as ‘Mr. Novak’ after knowing him from work, chimed in before asking how school was going.

As usual, the conversation unerringly focused on Dean’s life for the first portion of the meal; Cas had jokingly said one night after one of his parents’ dinners that he figured his parents simply liked Dean more than him and his brother which is why they seemed so interested though the most likely reason Dean could figure is they were just being polite. Eventually though the role of conversation focus was passed on to Gabriel and then Cas.

“Oh, Castiel,” Mrs. Novak said suddenly, interrupting a debate, well more like an argument really, that Cas and his brother were having about how to handle the delivery of a wedding cake that had been ordered. “I just remembered, the ladies down at the church are having a bake sale and were wondering if you’d like to donate anything.”

Cas, his mouth full of a bite of post dinner ice cream, nodded and swallowed, “Yeah, of course,” he said. “What should I make for you?”

Mrs. Novak smiled and clasped her hands together, “Well, Mrs. Finnegan requested that you make those little lemon tarts and Julie Myers was hoping you’d bake a few batches of your orange creamsicle cupcakes,” she started listing, counting the items using her fingers, “But then Angie wanted a few of your pies. I told them that it seemed like an awful lot for one person to donate…”

“I think I can handle it, Mother,” Cas interrupted his mother’s rambling. He put his spoon on the table and rummaged in his pants pocket. “Here, write down a list of everything that the ladies want and I’ll get it made.” He handed her the battered notebook and his pen. “Oh, and write down when the bake sale is so I know when to plan for.”

Dean smiled to himself; he was always sort of proud of how generous Cas was. Anytime an non-profit organization needed thing for a bake sale or an event, he always made sure to give them a hefty discount, if he wasn’t just outright donating the food like he was for his mother’s church group. One time he’d asked Cas if it ever affected his business but the other man had shrugged it off saying that it did sometimes but he like to help and, from a business standpoint, it helped him get new customers; people who would either try his food or buy his baked goods usually liked them so much, they ended up coming into the shop to buy more. 

The conversation flagged a bit as Mrs. Novak leafed through the notebook only to be taken up again by Chuck and Gabe; Dean dug into his bowl of ice cream again and had taken a hefty bite when Cas’ mother said something that made his veins run colder than the dessert he’d just inserted into his mouth.

“I’ll have to buy you a new notebook, Castiel,” she said, clucking her tongue in admonishment. “I can hardly find a blank page but then you do always like to make lists.”

Oh sweet Jesus, this list!

The horrible realization of what he had just done must have hit his boyfriend at the same exact time since Cas’ gaze shot up to look at Dean from across the table. His eyes were wide and Dean swore he was a pale as the vanilla ice cream in his bowl. They had a microsecond to share looks of sheer terror before Mrs. Novak, who had been chattering animatedly as she flipped through Cas’ notebook, suddenly stopped talking abruptly.

Both he and Cas stopped staring at each other, whipping their heads to look over at the woman holding the well-worn notepad to see her staring down at it, mouth agape. 

Dean’s mind calmly wondered if there was a way to merge his body with the floor as he watched his boyfriend’s mother stare down at what had to be their sexy to do list. There was no possible way it could be anything else, not with the way Mrs. Novak’s eyes became as round as dinner plates and her cheeks turned tomato red. Dean instantly regretted putting tally marks next to items that he and Cas had done more than once and wanted to smack his boyfriend for making a ‘notes’ section because ‘we need to know what to improve on for the next list, Dean’ and thanks to that, there was most definitely a note about buying a vibrator on there somewhere.

This, this right here, is why it didn’t pay to be an overachiever.

“Oh my, well that’s---um--” she muttered to herself. She looked up to see them looking at her but immediately looked down at the notebook, her face turning even more red. “Oh, look! A blank page.” Mrs. Novak began to hurriedly scribble her list while her husband and oldest son seemed completely unaware of the complete and utter trainwreck going on at the other end of the table.

After less than a minute of Cas and Dean trying to compose themselves while Cas’ mother finished her list, she was gingerly handing the offending object back to her son who snatched it, his cheeks matching the flaming color of hers, and shoved it unceremoniously into his jeans pocket.  
Sufficed to say, for the comfort of all those involved in what Dean would later refer to as ‘the notebook disaster’, Cas and Dean were soon making their excuses and saying their goodnights. Their exit only made even more hasty after the idle comment from Chuck that made that had Mrs. Novak visibly blushing again.

“I guess if you boys insist on leaving, I’ll get to work on the bills for the week,” he’d thrown casually over his shoulder as he walked down the hall to his office after saying goodnight, “That’ll be one thing off my to do list; I like getting to cross things off of there.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And the list comes back to haunt them...  
> I was debating on whether to have Gabriel find out about the list too or not but that just seemed too mean, I think the boys suffered enough in this chapter.


	25. Chapter 25

Being stuck in a car for an extended period of time was an unpleasant experience.  
Being stuck in a car for an extended period of time with his brother was mind numbing torture.

_“My milkshake brings all the boys to yard and they’re like...it’s better than yours… damn right...it’s better than yours…”_ Gabriel sang obnoxiously for literally the dozenth time since they’d started this horrible journey earlier. He looked over at Castiel and flashed a smartass grin before continuing, _“I can teach you but I’d have to charge._ Come on, Cassie! Stop being a sour puss.”

Castiel briefly contemplated jumping out of the vehicle but decided against it considering they were speeding down the highway at almost eighty miles per hour. He rolled his eyes and sighed. “Maybe it you didn’t have this song practically on repeat, maybe I would have been convinced to indulge your strange sing-a-long habit,” he drawled, “But I lost interest after the fifth rendition to be honest.”

The volume on the radio suddenly jumped up to permanent-ear-damage level as Gabriel shouted, “Well, I guess it’s more fun for me!” Then to Castiel’s horror the song began to repeat. _“MY MILKSHAKE BRINGS ALL THE BOYS TO THE YARD…”_

Smaking his head against the window, Castiel wondered why in the world he had thought hitching a ride to Dean’s school with Gabriel had been a good idea.

The answer to that question was of course the fact that winter and motorcycles didn’t mix and unfortunately he didn’t own a car. He was able to accomplish most of his errands by walking since he lived in town and for anything that took him further than that, he either borrowed one of his parents’ cars or his brother’s. 

This time, however, both his mother and father had plans that required them to have their cars and Gabriel was going to a friend’s for a party. Castiel had been resigned to tell Dean that he couldn’t drive down and help him pack what he was choosing to bring home for the winter break when his brother called and offered a solution. He would leave early to go to his friend’s place and just drop Castiel off at the college that way he could ride back with Dean in the Impala.

It had seemed like such a good plan at the time and Castiel had actually been impressed that his hyperactive sugar addicted brother had thought of it. Sure he had realized then that driving somewhere with Gabriel was bound to be a pain but at the time he had soothed his troubled mind with the knowledge that the trip was only a few hours; he worked with his pain in the ass brother for more than forty hours a week, he could handle a few hours in a car. Now though…

Now he truly realized how naive he had been.

He should have known this is exactly how the trip would have ended up when Gabriel arrived at his door, whipped cream monstrosity of a coffee in one hand and what looked suspiciously like one of the cupcakes Castiel had prepared for the display rack, loudly announcing his arrival. The blaring pop song that burst forth from the car speakers the instant his brother turned the key should have been the absolute confirmation that he was in for the longest drive of his life.

Castiel would deny to his dying day that he teared up a bit in joy as he spotted the exit for the college. Soon, but not nearly soon enough for the baker’s frazzled nerves (he’d listened to three more renditions of ‘Milkshake’ back to back to back), Gabriel smoothly parked his car at the curb in front of Dean’s dorm. He pointedly ignored the overly loud reminder to use protection that followed him as he scrambled from the vehicle to the safety of the outside world. 

To his immense relief, his brother didn’t decide to stay around to torture him though he did honk the horn obnoxiously multiple times, causing a group of students to turn and stare at the commotion, before driving away. Castiel shook his head as he turned towards the dorm, hand slipping into his jacket pocket to grab his phone to text his boyfriend when suddenly Dean appeared and started walking towards him.

“Hey babe,” Dean said, grinning widely. Before Castiel could respond, he found himself with an armful of boyfriend, a pair of arms wrapped around him and a hot mouth over his own. 

This kiss was brief due to the mindfulness of their current surroundings but the baker was completely certain that it promised extremely good things in his future, some of his absolute favorite things.

“Mmm...somebody missed me,” Castiel hummed when they broke apart. Dean chuckled and released the death grip he had on the baker’s torso but didn’t widen the distance between them.

Dean looked like he was about to speak when he was interrupted by a wolf whistle accompanied by a shout to ‘get a room, Winchester’ that caused the other man to peer around Castiel’s head; the baker turned slightly and saw a group of guys across the street, waving at them. After Dean responded with a hearty but genuinely friendly invitation for the group to go and fuck themselves, the two of them decided to take the advice and headed inside the building.

“That’s just some of the guys from my physics class,” Dean explained as they signed Castiel in at the front desk before they made their way towards the stairwell. He held the door open and gestured for the baker to go through first; Castiel was well aware that this meant his boyfriend had a nice view of his ass as they went upstairs so he was surprised Dean had the self control to continue talking instead of making a dirty comment. “They think they’re hilarious but I think they’re just jealous because they aren’t getting a piece of this,” he continued before surprising Castiel with a firm smack on the ass.

Ah, there’s the Dean he expected to see.

They reached the landing for his boyfriend’s floor; this time Castiel held open the door and gestured Dean through and if he took the opportunity to give a certain ass a hearty grope, well it was only fair. 

When they made it to Dean’s dorm room, Castiel noticed that the opposite side of the room was pretty bare; the bed was stripped of its blankets and sheets, the desk was void of any papers and there was no computer. “Oh, yeah. Benny already left,” Dean said in response to the baker’s unasked question as he pulled out a large duffle bag from his tiny closet. “The lucky bastard had all early finals so he was able to skip out yesterday morning; he said to tell you ‘hey’ though.”

Castiel chuckled as he took the bag and started to put Dean’s clothes inside. “I take it from your bitter tone that you weren’t as lucky on the finals’ front,” he asked playfully.

The other man scowled halfheartedly while he gathered his computer. “No, I actually just got out of my last one,” he grumbled, annoyance plain in his voice. Dean shoved the laptop in his backpack before turning back to look at him, a finger raised as if to indicate a point. “Though I guess I am better off than some other poor suckers; I heard this one chick at the dining hall bitching about having a final at six tonight. Who the hell schedules a final that fucking late on the last day of the semester?”

“Satan?” Castiel casually supplied. He’d finished gathering up Dean’s clothes and was currently trying to zip the duffle bag shut but, due to the large amount of items currently in it, was having a bit of a difficult time. Dean laughed as he walked over and helped him.

“Must be,” he replied, “Either that or some other sort of hell demon.”

Packing up the rest of what Dean was taking home didn’t take too terribly long. A large portion was being left behind; the college allowed the students to leave possessions in the dorms over winter break if they wished but cautioned them to take anything valuable home with them since, even though the buildings were locked and monitored, they didn’t actually guarantee there wouldn’t be any thefts. Keeping this in mind, they only packed the things Dean wouldn’t want stolen. By the time they were done there was a decent sized pile of bags and a few plastic crates in the middle of the room.

“Well then,” Dean said, groaning as he popped his spine, “I don’t know about you but I am freaking starving. Want to go grab some lunch?” Castiel’s stomach growled loudly, expressing its support of this decision before his mouth could and the other man chuckled. “I’ll take that as a yes. I think the dining hall is having pizza today.”

A short walk later, after dropping off a box each at the Impala since they were already going outside anyway, they were happily enjoying pizza in the dining hall; the large room was practically a ghost town but Castiel supposed that was to be expected, practically the entire campus was already gone for the break which was a surprisingly appealing proposition.

“So all we have to do is haul the rest of your stuff down to the car and we’ll be ready to go?” Castiel asked nonchalantly, testing the waters as an idea suddenly occurred to him. “No more finals, nothing else you need to do before we head out?”

Dean finished chewing the bite of pizza he’d just taken and swallowed it. “Yep, that’s all there’s left to do,” he answered, unaware of any ulterior motive that his boyfriend’s questions could have. “I already said goodbye to everyone since most of them are already gone and they knew I was leaving today.”

Castiel nodded and smiled as he ate the rest of his pizza, his mind calculating the best way to approach his plan. By the time he’d finished eating, the baker was already starting to get a bit worked up and decided that subterfuge was overrated. He reached out under the table with his foot and started to rub slowly at Dean’s calf, causing the other man to nearly inhale what remained of his pizza slice.

“Dude, what--the--” his boyfriend coughed before catching his breath, “Cas, warn a guy, will ya?”

There was something truly entertaining about the dual expressions of annoyance and arousal that were warring on those handsome features so it took Castiel a second to respond with his proposal. “You know, Dean,” he said lowly, leaning forward over the small table so that his face was inches away from the other man’s, his hand reaching out to run a thumb slowly over the warm skin of Dean’s hand while his foot continued to rub at his muscular calf. “We have a golden opportunity right in front of us.”

“Oh-oh, yeah?” Dean asked, his breathing picking up slightly. The hand that wasn’t currently trapped under the baker’s was gripping the edge of the table. “And w-what opportunity would that be?”

Castiel leaned back, ceasing his teasing in favor of stretching his arm overhead in a movement that he knew revealed a strip of skin above his jeans. Dean’s breath hitched and the baker grinned to himself; his boyfriend was ridiculously predictable. “Well, I was just thinking,” he continued with an air of overly emphasized aloofness, “We’ve never gotten the chance to fool around in your dorm and well, with Benny being gone already, we wouldn’t have to worry about being interrupted…” He let himself trail off and leveled a pointed look at the man seated across from him whose eyes were now half closed and darkened. “See where I’m going with this?”

Dean nodded rapidly as he began to hurriedly pile their garbage onto a tray and Castiel couldn’t resist the urge to laugh at how eager the other man was but he sobered up slightly when he was hauled out of his seat and forcibly dragged out of dining hall.

The trip back to the dorm which, going by their walking pace, should have been much shorter than when they had been going the opposite direction but actually took longer than before, mainly due to the frequent stops the pair of them made on the way there; Castiel lost count of how many times Dean pulled him into a secluded corner to ravage his mouth and grope at him wildly. The baker probably would have been guilty of that crime as well if he’d known more about the campus’s layout but here the other man had the clear advantage.

“We’ll never make it back to your dorm at this rate,” Castiel panted as the other man nipped and sucked at the skin of his neck. The baker’s hands were knotted tightly in Dean’s short blonde hair, unconsciously encouraging him to keep going despite his words to the contrary.

His statement went unacknowledged for several more seconds before Dean came up for air. “Sure we will,” he replied breathlessly, “The dorm is just over there.”

Sure enough, he was right; Castiel could just make out the corner of the familiar building from their spot behind a large campus map. “Then why aren’t we headed in that direction right now?” the baker asked, pointing out the obvious. “We could already be in your room.”

Dean seemed to ponder this for a second before nodding in agreement. “Good point, I really want to get to the good stuff but nobody gets to see this ass but me,” he answered, grabbing a good handful of Castiel’s ass in emphasis.

So with as much dignity as they could muster, which in retrospect probably wasn’t very much, they hurried across the street to the dorms. Luckily they didn’t have to sign Castiel in again since the same person was still on duty at the desk though she did give them a knowing look as they rushed by towards the stairs. Not that anyone could really fault her, going by what he knew Dean looked like and what he could infer about his own appearance, it was extremely obvious what they were going to do.

They practically sprinted up the stairs and down the practically deserted hallway to Dean’s dorm. The door was quickly unlocked and once they were in the doorway, the door shut behind them, Dean pounced.

Castiel was forcefully pushed backward by his boyfriend’s assault on his mouth until he was pushed up against the dresser next to Dean’s bed. A muscular chest kept him pinned there while fingers wound themselves into his hair and a familiar tongue pried open his teeth to deepen the kiss. The baker moaned and returned all these favors by grasping the back of Dean’s neck with one hand and his ass with the other and topped it all off by situating a thigh between his boyfriend’s legs and rubbing insistently at the bulge he found there.

The room was filled with the wet sound of their mouths and the alternating sounds of their pants and moans. Patience starting to ebb, Castiel slipped a hand between them and unbuttoned his boyfriend’s jeans; an action that earned him a relieved sigh and then sharp inhale as he reached inside to firmly cup his heated flesh. The baker grinned smugly as he continued to press his mouth to Dean’s and allowed the other man to rut his hips into his hand for a while longer before sending his fingers down further to prod behind his boyfriend’s balls. Dean’s mouth broke away as he gasped when Castiel rubbed at just the right spot; the baker was really starting to enjoy all the delicious sounds he was pulling out of the other man when suddenly Dean groaned and it wasn’t a sexy one.

“Shit,” he panted, his tone was one of disappointed realization. Castiel stopped moving his hand and leaned back to look at him, confused.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, he’d thought Dean said they had time for this. Maybe his boyfriend had remembered something he needed to do before they could leave.

Dean’s head fell forward onto Castiel’s shoulder with another groan, this time it was in obvious annoyance and disappointment. “The lube and condoms are in the car.”

Well damn.

“It’s alright, we’ll just think of this as a preview. When we get back to my place tonight...” Castiel started to assure him but was stopped when a hand grabbed the one he’d just removed from Dean’s pants. He looked up to see his boyfriend looking at him intensely.

“I was promised dorm room fooling around, Cas” he said firmly before giving him a fierce kiss, “And I for one, am not going to let lack of lube stop me.” This being said, Dean gave him one last kiss before sliding down to his knees.

Castiel’s arousal, put on hold by the previous pause, roared back to life as Dean unzipped his jeans and yanked them and his underwear down to around his thighs. Burning hot hands gripped his hips tightly while the other man nipped at his hips, ignoring the achingly hard cock next to his face. Every once and awhile Dean’s cheek would brush against him, causing the baker to gasp. After what Castiel’s lust soaked mind felt was hours but in reality was probably on a minute, Dean finally pity on him and wrapped a hand around his leaking dick and gave him a few slow strokes. Castiel could only watching in agonizing anticipation as Dean’s mouth got closer and closer to the head of his cock. Green eyes looked up at him, bright with teasing amusement, as his boyfriend paused for a moment.

“Please! Oh fuck, please just do it, Dean” Castiel finally begged, feeling like he was going to explode if he had to stand there and watch those spit slick lips hover so close to him without touching. 

This must have been what Dean had been waiting for because, without missing a beat, he took Castiel into his mouth and swallowed him down. The sudden reality of being inside the wet heat of his boyfriend’s mouth after being turned on and teased for so long had the baker’s head falling back and a chest deep groan being ripped from him; a long moan quickly followed as he literally felt Dean chuckling around him. The smug bastard was probably real proud of himself but Castiel didn’t care, all he cared about was the rhythmic bobbing of his boyfriend’s head over his groin. He could feel the coiled heat getting tighter and tighter; a situation exacerbated by the slick sound of Dean jerking himself off as he blew him. Castiel reached down and buried a hand in Dean’s hair; his hips moved minutely as he resisted the urge to drive them into the other man’s face as he got closer and closer to coming.

_Fuck yes, that’s it right there, so close, just a bit more, fuck, just a bit more,_ was the mindless litany going through what was left of Castiel’s mind since apparently Dean was bound and determined to suck the rest of it out through his cock. He didn’t even have enough brainpower to actually voice these thoughts like he normally would he was so lost in the magic of his boyfriend’s mouth moving over him so in retrospect, it’s not surprising that he didn’t hear the door.

“SWEET LORD OF THE RINGS!!! MY EYES, MY VIRGIN EYES!!”

Until that point in time, Castiel had never gone from ‘so close to coming he was practically there’ to ‘will he ever be able to come again?’ in a split second so he never even knew it was possible. Sufficed to say, he now knew it was absolutely possible and that it was extremely unpleasant. Especially when it happens because one minute you’re in the middle of being sucked off by your boyfriend and then a split second later you are literally face to face with said boyfriend’s lesbian best friend before the door slammed shut again.

The warmth around Castiel’s now well on its way to becoming soft dick disappeared and he looked down to see his look of sheer horror echoed in the face of the man kneeling in front of him.

“Charlie!?” Dean asked, his voice rough from their interrupted activities. He turned to look at the closed door. “What--what are you doing here?!” 

Castiel finally regained some of his brain cells and promptly tucked himself back into his pants as Dean rose up from the floor, doing the same for himself. He watched, still shocked and completely mortified, as his boyfriend went to the door and tried to open it but it wouldn’t budge. The other man looked at it in confusion before trying again with the same result; since it locked from the inside, it was obvious that his friend was holding it shut.

“Sorry, Dean,” Charlie’s muffled voice came through the door, “But I really don’t think I could look you in the eye at the moment. I--uh--I came by to give you back your English notebook.” Here there was a pause as a green spiral bound notebook appeared in the crack under the door. “But I can see you have--um, you know---company so I’ll just leave this here and---uh---I’ll talk to you later. Bye Dean!” There was another short pause. “And Cas too, I guess,” she finished awkwardly before hurried footsteps echoed down the hall.

The silence in the room was so palpably uncomfortable that it made Castiel want to flinch. His boyfriend’s best friend had just seen him right smack dab in the middle of receiving what had been some of the best head of his life. He supposed the only thing worse than that would have been if she had opened the door a minute later she had, then he would have had to live with the ultimate embarrassment of knowing that Charlie had seen him mid-orgasm.

_Thank god for small favors,_ he thought to himself. He turned, planning on asking Dean if he was alright but froze as he saw the other man seated on the ground, face buried in his hands with his shoulders shaking. At first, Castiel’s stomach turned to lead as he assumed that the other man was crying and he frantically tried to come up with a way to remedy this awful situation but this worry immediately gave way to confusion as his boyfriend’s hands fell away and it became apparent that he was actually laughing hysterically.

“Dean?” Castiel asked cautiously as he walked over and slowly sat down next to his still cackling boyfriend. “Are you alright? I know that this horribly embarrassing…”

“Oh believe me, I know it’s embarrassing,” Dean interrupted him in between bouts of giggling. The hysterical laughter slowly faded away until he was only chuckling every so often. “I swear, I’ve been in more awkward situations in the last six months than I ever have in my entire life.”

Suddenly Castiel felt the lead weight in his stomach again. Six months, that’s how long they had been together. Did Dean regret dating him? Not that the baker could really blame him, Castiel had been the cause of some of their more embarrassing moments. It probably was frustrating to be almost constantly mortified.

“Oh, right,” Castiel said hollowly, shifting ever so slightly so that he wasn’t crowding Dean anymore, his hands knotted in his lap “I guess most of that is kind of my fault and I apologize, if you don’t think this is going to---”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Dean interrupted him again, this time his tone was dead serious. He turned to look at Castiel but the baker wouldn’t meet his eyes; a familiar hand gently gripped his chin and moved it so he had to look into those green eyes. “I don’t blame you for any of the shit that’s happened to us, Cas. To be honest, if we’re going to blame anyone, I say we blame me because I know you wouldn’t have done half that stupid shit if I hadn’t been the one begging to do it.” 

Castiel scoffed. “I think I had a lot to do with it too, Dean,” he argued, not willing to let his boyfriend take the lion’s share of the blame. Case and point, he was the one who’d instigated this most recent humiliation; Dean hadn’t been the one to suggest getting frisky in the dorm room.

Rolling his eyes and sighing, Dean shrugged and patted him on the thigh. “Alright fine, we’re both idiots,” he offered, smiling that charming smile he knew got him almost anything he wanted; this time it was a small grin from Castiel. “But I want you to get it though that weird little brain of yours, there is no one on this planet that I would rather be stuck in awkward situations with than you, Cas. Don’t ever forget that.”

To emphasize his argument, Dean moved his hand from the baker’s chin to cup his cheek so he could lean in and place a short but sweet kiss on his lips. They sat there for a minute, foreheads resting together before the other man leaned back and stood up.

“Now, since we can’t continue our attempt to fool around in my dorm rooms because I know I won’t be getting it up in this room for a while, I suggest we haul my shit to my car and head home,” Dean proposed, reaching down to help Castiel to his feet. Once the baker was upright, he found himself being pulled into another kiss, this one just a bit more heated than the one before. Then Dean was whispering in his ear, “And then, once we get back to your place with the door locked, maybe we can see about picking up where we left off just now.”

Castiel smiled in response to the mischievous smirk his boyfriend sent his way before starting to gather up the rest of his things. 

_Maybe we do get into more awkward spots that most people do_ , Castiel thought to himself later as he was in the passenger seat of the Impala, enjoying the sight of Dean singing quietly along with one of his cassette tapes. _But it’s definitely a small price to pay to have this._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there we have it folks, the end.
> 
> Well not _really_ the end. I can totally see myself coming back to visit these two again but for right now, I'm fresh out of ideas on what shenanigans for them to get up to. Plus there's the fact that this story has gotten so big that when I try to open it in Google docs, it takes absolute ages to load, and that teeny issue of me having not plot what so ever. So I figured I would end this one here for the moment. 
> 
> I would like to take a second to thank you all for reading, especially those who have been following the story since the early days and who have put up with my horrendous unreliability in the update department, you've all been completely amazing and if I were the type of person who hugs people, I would, to quote one of my favorite kings, "wrap myself around you like a leather jacket made of love." [Bonus points to anyone who gets that reference.]
> 
> And finally, now that my weird affection moment is done, if there is an embarrassing situation that you were dying to see happen to our favorite couple and I didn't write it, leave me a comment or shoot me a message on tumblr (blue-reveries) and I'll will do a one shot for you. :D

**Author's Note:**

> Hi lovely people! I've got another story for you all. As you can see from the rating I'm going a bit more mature on this one from the get go; after the super fluffiness of my last story, I'm going to try and add some more sexy times (I've been working on my smut skills) to the fluff with a side of awkward situations and see what happens.
> 
> P.S. Since I'm horrible at tagging (mainly because, quite frankly after the broad idea of a story, I really don't have a very set plan when I write, I just sort of go and it usually works out), you might want to keep an eye out for tag updates, though I highly doubt there will be anything controversial in here.


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